Life As Lucy
by Reaching4thatplace
Summary: (Set in modern day.) Lucy is some what of a Hermit. She spends most nights alone eating pizza or watching movies with her ever popular best friend. She see's life through the frosty glass of her bedroom window. But her social life begins to blossom when she meets two boys who think she's definitely worth fighting for. If you like slice of life stories definitely have a read :) R R
1. Panic At The House Party

My morning alarm began to ring through my room but I was already up and dressed. I'd been up for hours in fact. I turned off the alarm and climbed over my bed and into my window sill. It was one of my favourite places to sit. I could feel a cool breeze from the crack of my window and watched the fast paced world below. It was raining outside and the sky was nothing but grey. I wondered where my umbrella was. My door opened then and in walked my aunty, Helen. She was an incredible business woman, but a terrible aunt. She couldn't take care of me, in fact she was rarely even home. She was always away at a fancy event of some sort.

"Lucy, I'm off to work." She said from the door way.

"Yeah, okay." I said, not taking my eyes away from the window.

"I won't be back tonight." She said.

"Fine."

"I might even be gone tomorrow, too." She added quickly.

"Wait, what?" I turned around to catch her before she left. She had my umbrella in her hand.

"Well, I have a very important two day event with my company. But you'll be okay." She smiled.

"Have you left me food?" I asked.

"No, but there's money on the side." She said.

"Great. I'll just go grocery shopping after my acting class and then cook dinner before my home work and then clean the house before bed." I said in a huff.

"Okay, hun. I'll see you when I'm back." She sang as she hurried down the stairs. She hadn't even listened to me. I wasn't surprised though. I rolled my eyes and went down stairs to find a stash of money on the kitchen counter. That is what Helen did. If ever I was upset, she didn't comfort me. She'd just give me money. Most people wouldn't complain, I mean I was one of the richest kids at school. But I didn't want that. Money didn't matter to me. I just wanted to have a family again. There was nothing in the house for breakfast so I didn't see the point in hanging around any longer. I grabbed my school bag and headed outside. I had forgotten it was raining.

"Oh well." I sighed and marched down the road. Cars were zooming past on they're way to work or school, splashing me as the drove by. Once you're wet you're wet though, right? It's not like a car splashing me was going to make me any wetter than the heavy rain already had. The walk to school was a long one, especially when you're alone. I decided to pull out my headphones and listen to some music. My headphones and music were my one escape from this world. When I was younger and my dad was yelling, I'd put my headphones in. When my aunty threw parties at our house for her colleagues, I'd put my head phones in. There was just something about listening to music through my head phones that relaxed me. It made the walk to school shorter since I found myself walking to the beat of the music.

When I got to school it was about eight thirty and the bell wouldn't ring until nine so I headed to the school toilets. I was soaking wet and dripping water everywhere I went. I dropped my bag to the floor and stared in the mirror.

"What a mess." I said. I stuck my head under the hand dryer in an attempt to dry my hair. It sort of did the trick, although now my hair was knotted and frizzy. I grabbed my backpack and headed out the toilet and to my class room. I didn't want to go in yet so I sat on the floor outside. No one was around. No students, no teachers- it was weird. I put my headphones back in and leant my had against the wall.

The morning went pretty quickly. I met my best friend Levy for lunch. Levy was great but she was also popular. She had a lot more friends than I did so it was hard to get her alone. I was lucky to have her to myself today.

"Hey, so, my aunty is gone until Sunday. Do you want to move in for a couple of days?" I asked as I bit into a sandwich.

"Oh, Lu, I'd love to but I have plans with my boy friend." She said with a sad face.

"Oh, right. Your boy friend." I said with a roll of my eyes.

"Don't be like that, Lu."

"I just don't get why you're with that guy. He's like twenty." I said.

"Lucy, he's only two years older than us." She said.

"Still, he's weird." I said through a mouthful of food.

"You're weird." Levy poked her tongue out at me.

"What ever."

"So, where's Helen off to this time?" Levy knew how much of a flake my aunty was. When I was younger I had to spend a lot of time staying at Levy's because of Helen's busy social calendar.

"Who knows? She just said she had an import two day event with her company."

"I bet she's got a boyfriend." Levy said.

"Probably. But you wanna' know the worst part?"

"What?"

"She took my umbrella!" I cried.

"Not your umbrella!" Levy reacted. I nodded sadly before shooting Levy a smile.

"You're so stupid." She laughed.

After school we headed to our acting class. It was a school club Levy had convinced me to join so she wouldn't be lonely. She just said that to get me to join though, Levy had friends everywhere. The acting class was full of the most popular girls at school. They all wanted to be famous actresses when they were older, but I was just there for fun. The teacher went by the name Evergreen. She was kinda eccentric and was pretty in love with herself. All the girls in the class looked up to her. She sat us all in a circle on the floor and slowly walked around us. She ran her hands through the hair of each student as she strode past them.

"Now, class, it's time for you to pair up." She said. Every one immediately began to turn to their friend when Evergreen interrupted. "I want you to look at the person directly opposite you. This person will be your partner." She said. I looked up. Sat opposite me was a boy from the year above. He had dark hair which was hanging in his face as he looked back at me. He stood up and walked towards me. I gulped as he silently held out a hand.

"Guess we're partners." He said as I placed my hand in his.

"Yeah, I guess." I said as he pulled me to my feet.

"This person will be your partner for the rest of the school year." Evergreen said.

"Wait, what?" One of the girls asked. She had been paired up with a another girl who she clearly didn't like.

"That's the way it is in the real world, hun. You may not always like who you have to work with, but you have to get on with it." Evergreen said with a smile. The girl huffed and crossed her arms. Did I really have to work with this guy for the rest of the year? Oh, god. "You'll spend the rest of today's class getting to know your partner. Next class, we'll start preparing performances." Evergreen clapped for us to begin. I turned to my partner awkwardly. He looked like the last guy you'd see in acting class.

"I'm Gray." He said.

"Lucy."

"So, why did you join this class?" He asked.

"My friend made me." I gestured to Levy who was busy chatting away to her partner. "You?"

"I lost a bet with my brother." He said. I laughed. "No, really."

"Oh, you're serious?"

"Yeah." Gray rubbed his head and smiled awkwardly.

"What was the bet?" I asked.

"He bet me he would last longer in an ice bath I could." Gray said.

"And you lost?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"He won by default, our mum pulled me out first." Gray said.

"But you still joined the class?" I asked.

"Hey, a bets a bet." He shrugged. I smiled. This guy seemed just as uninterested in acting as I was. Maybe we were meant to be partners, not that I believed in fate or anything. We spent the rest of the class joking around about how lame we thought the class was.

"Can't wait to see you next time!" He cheered sarcastically as we left the school.

"Right back at ya'" I said and saluted him good bye. I walked to the grocery store, laughing to myself as I went.

* * *

I grabbed a cart and began pushing it down the isles of the store. I was so used to doing my own grocery shopping by now. I reached for a tin of apricots on one of the top shelves but I just couldn't quite reach. My finger tips brushed the top of the tin as I grabbed for it, accidentally knocking it over. My eyes widened as they focused on the can of food about to roll off the shelf and on to my face.

"Careful." Someone said beside me. I turned round in shock to find a boy in the same school uniform as me holding the can of apricots in his hand.

"Thank you." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"No problem. Next time, just use one of those." He smirked and gestured to a foot stool that had been set out for customers.

"Right." I nodded and took the can from him.

"You go to Fiore High, too?" He asked.

"Yep, I'm a second year."

"I'm a third year. Natsu." He said with a smile.

"Lucy." I said.

See ya' around, Lucy." He said. I watched as he disappeared in to the croud of other shoppers. I chucked the apricots in my cart and finished my shopping. Since Helen had left me a giant wad of cash I decided to treat myself to a few of my favourite things. I bought a mountain of chocolate and pints of flavoured milk.

"Thank you, Aunt Helen." I said as I chucked a couple Pizzas in the cart too. That night I had a feast.

* * *

 **Saturday Night**

I was sat in my window sill on my laptop when I noticed Levy and her boyfriend walking down the road. I couldn't help but smile and ran down stairs to open the door.

"Lulu!" Levy called out as she began to run down the road.

"Levy, what are you doing here?" I asked as she threw her arms around me.

"I thought you might be lonely with Helen gone so we're here to keep you company." She smiled as her boyfriend finally caught up to her. He was huge. Like, Literally twice the size of Levy. I've seen him pick her up with one hand, no joke.

"Gajeel." I nodded.

"Lucy." He said back with a small smile.

"Is that pizza I smell?" Levy asked.

"Indeed it is." I moved aside and welcomed Gajeel and Levy into my house. We ate pizza and watched a movie together. Gajeel wasn't that bad. He was just a little moody sometimes, but then again so was I. He made levy happy so I guess that's all that matters. They were a good couple but the best part was, they never made me feel uncomfortable. They never kissed in front of me or acted all _lovey dovey_. It just felt like three friends hanging out.

"I'm just popping to the loo." I said as I hopped off the sofa.

"Do you want us to pause it?" Levy asked.

"Nah, I've seen it a hundred times." I said as I ran upstairs. Whilst I was in the bathroom I heard someone ringing the door bell.

"I'll get it, Lu!" Levy called up to me.

"Okay!" I finished up on the loo and washed my hands. Levy and I had always felt so at home at each others houses. We answered each others doors, cooked each others food. All that kind of stuff. When I opened the bath room door I heard a lot more voices than just Levy's and Gajeel's. I thought it could have been the movie but deep down I knew it wasn't. I peered round the door to see Levy running up the stairs.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Oh, Lu. I'm so sorry!" Levy cried. I was starting to worry what was going on down stairs.

"Lev, you're freaking me out." I said.

"I mentioned to some of the girls how lucky you were to have the house to yourself this weekend and-"

"You told all the popular girls that I had a free house? Levy, have you never seen a movie before tonight? Everyone knows free house is code for party." I groaned and hit my forehead against the door frame.

"I know, I know. I'm so sorry! Please don't hate me." She clutched her hands together and looked at me with tears in her eyes. I sighed.

"I don't hate you."

"I didn't think for a second they'd turn up like this." She said.

"Well, how many people are there?" I asked.

"Come look." Levy said nervously. My aunty and I had a big house, a somewhat huge house, and tonight it was full to the brim. It was like every kid from our year was crammed in to the down stairs of my house.

"Oh. My. God." I said as I stood at the top of the stairs. People we're still coming in, bringing crates of beer with them as they did.

"Woohoo, Lucy's throwing a rager!" Some guy yelled as I made my down the stairs. Levy followed me, grabbing hold of my shirt as I moved through the crowd. Someone had found Helen's stereo and was blasting music through our giant speakers. People had already moved my furniture aside to make more room for dancing and drinking. My heart was thumping louder than the base drum to the track playing through the speakers.

"Levy, what the hell am I gonna do?" I yelled above the noise.

"I don't know. Why don't you just enjoy it?" She asked.

"Are you serious? They're trashing my house!"

"Look around, Lu. Everyone is having a great time, because of you." She was already opening herself a bottle of beer. I shook my head, but she was right. Everyone around me was having a great time, so why couldn't I?

"Levy, I found you." Gajeel was suddenly beside us. He grabbed Levy by the waist and lifted her on to my kitchen side.

"Yep, you found me." Levy laughed. Was she already tipsy from just a few sips of beer?

"Are you drinking?" He asked.

"Yes, Gajeel. Here, have one." Levy grabbed another beer and thrust it Gajeel. "You too, Lu." She said and handed me a bottle as well. I took the beer and cracked it open. Maybe I could have fun. Maybe this was the night I become one of the cool kids. I was taking a swig of beer when someone crashed into me from behind. My bottle smacked against my lip and I yelped a little.

"Yo. Sorry, dude." Some random guy said before running out of the kitchen. I raised a hand to my lip and saw blood dripping from my finger tip.

"Oh god." I moaned. A horrible feeling began to overwhelm me. My heart raced and my chest grew tight, I felt like I couldn't breath. I looked around helplessly at the crowd of people consuming me. It was no good. Levy was distracted with Gajeel and I didn't have any other real friends here. I could see more people pouring in through the front and back door. There was no way out. I couldn't escape this feeling. I began to push my through the groups of people, it was like I had no control over my own movements. People were making out on my stairs but I just ran straight past them. Finally, I made it to my room. I fell through the door to find a couple making out on my bed.

"Get out." I mumbled. They looked embarrassed and ran past me, probably to find another room to make out in. I stumbled on to my bed and sat in my window sill. I grabbed my knees tight to my chest and tried to breath steadily but it seemed impossible. Tears began to roll down my cheeks and I was sobbing uncontrollably.

"What is happening?" I cried to myself. My door began to open at that moment. "Get out!" I cried.

"It's Natsu, bad time?" He said cheerfully. I stared at him, tears falling down my face, struggling to breath. His smile dropped. "Whoa, Lucy. What happened?" He rushed across the room and stood beside me whilst gently wiping the blood from my lip with the corner of his T-Shirt.

"I- Don't- Know." I sobbed in-between short breaths. "I- Can't- Breath."

"It's okay." He said calmly. "I'm gonna' go get you some water, okay? I'll be right back."

I nodded and waited for him to return. When he did he had a glass of icy water in his hands. As soon as he opened the door the music from downstairs flooded my room which made my heart race even faster. But he soon shut it behind him again.

"Here, drink this slowly." He said. I took the glass in both hands and began to gulp down the water. It was helping a little. I gasped as I finished the last drop then rested my head against the window in exhaustion. I still couldn't breath properly and my chest was hurting from how fast my heart was beating.

"What's- wrong- with- me?" I asked as Natsu took the glass from me and set it down on the floor.

"You're having a panic attack." He said.

"A- Panic- Attack?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've had one before. Just try to stay calm, okay?" He put a hand on my head and gently stroked my hair. It felt nice. I was beginning to calm down when I heard an almighty crash from down stairs. I winced at the noise and began to cry hard again. I felt stupid for acting like this in front of him but I just couldn't help it.

"What do you usually do to relax?" Natsu asked quickly.

"Headphones." I whispered breathlessly.

"Headphones, right." Natsu looked around my room in a rush until he finally found my phone and headphones. "You need to lie down." He said as he lifted me from the window. I shakily laid down on my bed and buried my head into my pillow. Natsu stood over me and softly put my headphones in my ears. "Just close your eyes." He said. So I did. Soft music began to play through my ears. Keeping my eyes shut I reached out my hand for Natsu to take. As I laid there reaching out, I felt his hand warmly wrapped around mine.


	2. L&M

Sunlight flooded through the curtains. I groaned and pulled a pillow over my face. Then I remembered.

"The party!" I yelled and ran down stairs. I braced myself to kick hungover teens out of my house and mop up puddles of sick and spilt beer. "Okay, everybody out!" I said as I made my way down the stairs. But to my surprise, there was no one there. No one laid along the bottom stairs; no one leaning over my sink; No drinks or food on the floor. In fact, if you walked in now you'd never of known there'd been a huge party the night before. I sighed in relief and sat myself at the kitchen table. That's when I spotted a paper note on the kitchen counter. I wondered over and picked it up, worried that it would be an _IOU_ or something like that.

 _Hope you're feeling better_

 _Natsu_

A goofy smile spread across my face as I stared at the piece of paper. The hand writing was awful and scribbley but it was so sweet. I put the note in my pocket and headed up stairs but as I made my way back to my room, I heard a groaning from the bathroom. _Oh god, who is it?_ I thought as I paused outside the door. What if it was some random guy I didn't even know?

"Uh, hello?" I said as tapped on the door.

"Lucy?" They groaned. It was Levy. I waited for her to unlock the door then pushed it open.

"Oh, god." I said and slapped my hand over my mouth and nose. Levy was laid with her head on my toilet seat. Her hair was a mess and her face was covered in make-up and tears.

"Lu, help me." She reached out a hand and grabbed my shorts.

"Okay, just get your head away from the toilet." I said. I grabbed a flannel and ran it under the cold tap. "Here." I dabbed her face with the flannel and began wiping away some of the grub that was staining her cheeks. "Did something happen to you?" I asked.

"No." She hiccuped. "Gajeel and I got into a fight."

"About what?" I asked as I rinsed the flannel and wet it again.

"Me drinking too much. He left me here to die, Lu." Levy cried. She was slurring her words so I figured she must have still been a little drunk.

"You're not dying, you just need some water. Come on." I grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. She was wobbly and weak, it was like watching Bambi walk for the first time. I tried to hold back a laugh as I helped her down the stairs. I'd never seen her like this before, probably because I'd never been to a house party before. Was this what she was always like? Had I just been oblivious to the drunken party girl side of Levy?

"Wow, Natsu did a good job." She said as she flopped onto my sofa.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"With the cleaning."

"Natsu cleaned?" I asked.

"Yeah. He stayed here all night, making sure no one disturbed you or broke anything. Then this morning he cleared every body out- apart from a few guys he'd convinced to help him clean." Levy slurred.

"He did?" I couldn't believe it. Why had he gone to such effort for a girl he'd never even had a real conversation with. My mind began to drift as I wondered about Natsu when I suddenly heard a revolting sound come from Levy's stomach. I turned to find her with her hands clasped over her mouth and her eyes shut tight, shaking her head. "You're gonna hate me." I said as I pulled out my phone. I decided to ring Gajeel. He was the only person Levy needed right now. She may of denied it and declared her hatred for him, but it was all drunken nonsense. She wanted him here.

"Hello." He said coldly.

"Hey, Gajeel. Uh, I need you to come get Levy." I said nervously. Levy looked up immediately and tried to protest but I threw a cushion at her, which was enough to knock her down due to the state she was in. I could hear him sigh over the phone and I was worried he'd protest.

"Okay, I'll be there in five." He said and hung up.

"Lu." Levy cried. "Why did you do that?"

"You want him here, lets face it." I said as I flopped down next to her.

"He's a jerk." She huffed.

"Only because he cares."

"I know." She said quietly and began to pout.

Gajeel arrived shortly after that and carried Levy home, since she had fallen asleep of my sofa, and I spent the rest of the day trying not to think about Natsu.

I couldn't sleep that night. Helen still hadn't gotten home and I was up worrying about her. As I laid in my bed, I decided to pull out my laptop and browse through my Facebook news feed. But as soon as I signed in, my profile was overwhelmed with notifications and friend requests from kids from school.

 _Cana Alberona: Awesome party last night Lucy!_

 _Bacchus Groh: Yo, when's the next rager?_

 _MiraJane Straus: Didn't know you had it in you, Lulu._

I read through the comments as if I were reading a novel, taking in each and every word and soaking up the text as if it was the best thing I had ever read. This was just a taste of what it felt like to be popular and I hated to admit that, well, I kind of liked it. I mean Mirajane, the most popular girl at our school, had posted on my wall! My wall! _Do I reply to their comments or is that uncool?_ I thought. _Maybe if I just like them._ My mouse was hovering over the like button when a noise from downstairs suddenly made me jump. I sat quietly and listened out. The front door opened but it was a man's voice I could hear, not Helen. Silently, I climbed out of bed and tiptoed to my door. I didn't know how to fight, but I grabbed a shoe of mine and began to open the door. That's when I saw it. A horrifying sight I can never forget! My aunt Helen thrust against the wall, making out with a beefy man in a suit! It was disgusting but I couldn't look away. He began carrying her up the stairs, still mouth to mouth, so I quickly moved away from my door.

"What about your niece?" He asked in-between kisses. What about me?

"Oh, don't worry about her. She'll be asleep by now." I heard Helen reply before her bedroom door slammed shut behind them.

"Why was I even worried about you?" I asked to myself as I got back into bed.

* * *

 **Monday Morning**

Helen had laid out breakfast for the two of us and asked me to eat with her. This was a first. I sat down at the kitchen table and she poured me a glass of juice as I did. I began to wonder where the man from last night had gone. He was probably upstairs, waiting for me to go to school so he could leave undiscovered.

"How was the trip?" I asked as Helen joined me at the table.

"It was fabulous. I met some incredible people." She said.

"Any men?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Men? Please." She laughed. "None that could handle me, that's for sure." She winked. I shot her a sarcastic smile and got up from the table. "Where are you going?" She asked.

"I have to get to school." I said as I slung my bag over my shoulder.

"Take the day off, lets go shopping." She smiled. It was tempting, I must admit, but I was still mad at her for last night.

"I can't."

"Well, how about dinner tonight?" She asked and got up from the table to walk me to the door. She never wanted to spend time with me, why did she now?

"Uh, sure." I said.

"Great, I'll pick you up after school." Helen beamed as I hurried out the door.

I met Levy at the school gates and the two of us walked to our classroom together. Everyone was smiling at me and nodding their heads in my direction. Some people even stopped me to say hi. I felt like an alien, everyone's attention was pointed at me.

"Has no one ever thrown a house party before?" I asked Levy.

"It's not that." Levy said.

"What then?"

"It's just, no one was ever expecting someone like you to." Levy said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, slightly offended.

"Well, you're not exactly the coolest kid around. Are you?" She said as she looked me up and down.

"Well, no but-"

"Look, Lu, don't over think it. Just enjoy it." Levy said as she gestured to all the people smiling and waving at us like we were famous. She was right, I should just enjoy it. The bell rang for classes to begin so Levy and I hurried to our classroom and took our seats. It was hard for me to focus on what the teacher was saying, I was too busy doodling on my hand or looking out the window. I was also sort of looking forward to dinner with Helen that night- even if I was still mad at her from the night before.

During class a scrunched up paper ball was chucked at my desk whilst the teacher had his back turned. I looked up to find the culprit and saw Lisanna, Mirajane's younger sister, turned in her desk and smiling at me. She was one of Levy's friends so I figured it was for her and began to pass it to her.

"No, it's for you." Levy said and held up her own paper ball. "Open it."

Carefully, I unfolded the paper and read the what was written inside.

 ** _Get together at our house_**

 ** _after school, be there_**

 ** _L &M _**

**_x_**

It was a well known fact at our school that if you received a note with _L &M _signed at the bottom, you were on your way to the top of the social ladder. I looked up at Lisanna but she had already turned back around.

"You're gonna' go, right?" Levy whispered.

"I don't know, I sort of have plans."

"They can't be better than this." Levy held up her paper and pointed to the _L &M_ scrawled at the bottom.

"I don't know." I said again.

"You're going." Levy decided. I sighed, there was no disagreeing with her now. She had this way with words that you just couldn't argue with once she's made up her mind. I spent the rest of the class reading the note over and over again. It didn't sit right with me. I didn't want to have to cancel my plans with Helen, maybe I could just spend half an hour at Mirajane and Lisana's and still have dinner with Helen. Yeah, that's what I'll do.


	3. Lulu

Levy snook out of school to spend lunch with Gajeel so I decided to find Natsu. I wanted to thank him for what he did for me and to actually have a genuine conversation with him. The hallways were full of students flooding in and out out of their classrooms as I made my way to the school canteen. It didn't take me long to spot him. Although, to my surprise he was sat alone in the corner of the canteen. My stomach began to bubble a little as I approached him and my cheeks were burning up. Why was I nervous? I took a deep breath and flashed him a smile.

"Hi." I said as I approached his table, trying my best to hide my nerves.

"Hey, Lucy." He smiled."Do you wanna' sit down?"

"Yeah, thanks." I pulled out the plasticky canteen chair and sat opposite him. "

"What are you doing tomorrow night?" He asked suddenly. It took me a little by surprise.

"Oh, um. Nothing, really." I said.

"We should hang out."

"You and me? You want to hang out with me? Tomorrow night." I babbled. God, being nervous did not look good on me. He laughed to himself.

"Yeah, is that okay?" He smiled.

"Yeah, I'd love to." I said. Natsu opened his mouth to say something when a pair of dainty hands, with long pink finger nails, came from behind and hugged his face, covering his eyes.

"Guess who!" The girl said happily. The corners of Natsu mouth curved into a one sided smile and I felt a tinge of jealously.

"Lisanna." He said confidently.

"Yep." Lisanna released Natsu's face and rested her chin on his shoulder with a grin. Then she saw me. "Oh, Lucy. Hi." She said.

"Hey." I replied.

"Did you wanna' sit with us?" She asked. I was already sat down, she was the one that would have been sitting with _us_. I didn't say that though.

"That's okay, I was just leaving." I got up from my chair and pushed it back under the table.

"You're coming tonight, though, right?" She asked with a smile. She seemed to be genuine so I smiled back.

"Yeah, I'll see you later." I left with a wave and returned to my classroom. Were they couple? I had no idea. It would make sense if they were, I mean they were both two of the most popular people at school. Every school had a power couple, right? Although I had always thought our school's power couple was Mirajane and her boyfriend.

* * *

When the bell finally rang for the end of the day, Levy and I headed to the school gates together. We were meeting a few other girls that had been invited to Lisanna's and Mirajane's that night. There was three of them. Cana Alberona, the school's party animal. Juvia Lockser, the school's hopeless romantic. Then there was Erza Scarlet, the school's power house. Together they were a pretty intimidating group and it was safe to say I was pretty nervous to meet them all like this.

"Guys, you all know Lucy." Levy said as we approached the other girls.

"Of course, the wild child!" Cana laughed as she flung an arm around my shoulder.

"It's nice to finally meet you." Erza held out a hand for me to shake. I wasn't expecting her to be so formal.

"You too." I smiled and shook her hand. Juvia nodded her head at me and the five of us made our way to Mira's. We talked and gossiped and joked around. Cana even shared headphones with me and we walked along listening to music together. They'd know me for barely an hour but immediately made me feel like one of the group. I began to feel like I had been missing out all these years. The times Levy couldn't hang out with me because she was busy, now I could see the fun she was having with out me.

We made it Mirajane's and Lisanna's house after a while. Their house was down a quiet street lined with tall trees and lush greenery. Levy lead us down their driveway and knocked on the door. I wriggled my toes inside my shoes as we waited for someone to respond.

"Coming." A chirpy voice called out. Then Mira answered the door. "Come on in!" She said and moved aside for us. Levy grabbed my hand and we walked through the house together and into Lisanna's room. Lisanna was sat on her desk, flipping through the music on her phone. Cana immediately flung herself on the bed and Juvia sat against it on the floor. I guess these girls feel pretty at home here.

"Glad you made it, Lulu." Mira said as she entered the room. "Sit down next to me."

"Sure." I smiled. Mira sat on the floor and tapped the empty space next to her for me to sit down. A few more girls arrived shortly after us and this little get together began to feel more like a small party. Lisanna was blaring music through her speakers and everyone was dancing around the room. Cana and Lisanna even started a pillow fight with each other.

"Lets play spin the bottle!" Cana yelled.

"Great idea, cana." Mira said. "Lisanna, go grab a bottle from the kitchen."

Everyone gathered round and sat in a circle on the floor. I hadn't played spin the bottle in years. Don't you have to kiss people in spin the bottle? I turned to Levy and whispered in her ear.

"Uh, are we going to be kissing each other?" I asked. Levy laughed.

"No, relax, Lu. It's just truth or dare. No kissing." Levy said.

"Did someone say kissing?" Cana threw her arm around me again and shot me a wink. Luckily Lisanna returned then with an empty wine bottle. I wondered if Lisanna and Mira had been the ones drinking it.

"Okay, I'll spin first." Lisanna said as she joined the circle. It was a good spin. We watched the bottle go round and round until it finally landed on Mira.

"Truth." She said before anyone could even ask her _Truth or dare?_

"What's the most awkward moment you've ever had on a date?" Lisanna asked with a raised brow. Mira shifted from side to side and smirked to herself.

"This looks like it's gonna be good." Cana said.

"I was on a double date at a restaurant and about half way through the meal I reached under the table to squeeze my dates knee." She said.

"And?" We all asked, desperate for more.

"Well, it turned out it wasn't _my_ date and it wasn't his _knee_ \- if you know what I mean." Mirajane grinned. We all began to laugh.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He got up and ran from the table." She said with a giggle.

"You've never told me that!" Lisanna laughed.

"Because it's embarrassing! Anyway, my turn." She reached for the bottle and gave it a spin. It landed on Lisanna.

"Oh no." Lisanna said. "Truth."

"Are you in love with Natsu?" Mira asked immediately. My stomach suddenly knotted.

"No, why would you ask me that?" Lisanna said with a wave of her hands.

"Well, you're always hanging out with the guy." Mira shrugged.

"Lucy was having lunch with him today." Lisanna said.

"You were?" Mira asked.

"Oh, um. Well, we weren't having lunch I just wanted to thank him." I said. All eyes were on me.

"For what?" Cana asked suggestively.

"Nothing like that. He just helped clean up my house after the party." I said.

"What a good guy." Erza said with a warm smile.

"Yep. Anyway, my turn." I said quickly and reached for the bottle.

* * *

After a few more rounds of spin the bottle, Mira asked me to help her get some snacks together. She took me in to their kitchen and asked me to grab some bowls from the cupboard.

"I like having you here, Lulu." She said as she rummaged through the drawers.

Yeah. I'm having fun." I smiled.

"I must admit, I was surprised when Levy invited us to your party last weekend." She said.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Oh, I didn't mean to offend you." She said.

"No, no. You said Levy _invited_ you to my party." I turned to Mira who was looking back at me with a nervous expression.

"Well, yeah. She said everyone was going and asked us if we wanted to."

"Why would she do that?" I asked. But I wasn't talking to Mira anymore- I was asking myself. Why would Levy tell everyone I was throwing a party?

"Did you not want us to come?" Mira asked. I didn't respond. I needed to speak to Levy and ask her why she did that. I marched back to Lisanna's room and stood in the door way, trying to catch Levy's attention. They had all gone back to dancing but after a while of me waving like a madman from the door way, Levy looked my way. I waved her over and together we went and shut ourselves in the bathroom down the hall.

"Everything okay?" She asked.

"I just needed to ask you something."

"Okay, shoot." Levy smiled.

"Did you tell people I was having a party and then invite everyone from school?" I asked. Levy's eyes widened and stared at me blankly.

"Lu, I'm so sorry." She said and grabbed my hands in hers.

"Why did you do that, Levy?" I asked.

"I just thought you needed it. I didn't think it would give you a panic attack."

"You thought I needed it? What does that mean?" I asked.

"It's just, you never do anything fun. It was a Saturday night, I didn't want to just sit around your house watching movies, it's boring." Levy said.

"If I recall, you turned up to my house to watch movies, I didn't invite you." I said. I hated arguing with Levy, but I was just so upset.

"Because I felt bad for you." She said but I could see she immediately regretted it. She clasped her hand to her mouth and stared at me with sad eyes.

"It's nice to know what you really think of me." I said, holding back tears, and left the room.

"Lucy, wait." Levy followed me but I kept walking.

"Just leave me alone, Levy." I said and left the house. How could she say stuff like that? Is that how she felt every time we hung out? That I'm her boring, saddo friend? She made me feel so stupid. I marched down the road and headed for home when a voice called out for me.

"Lulu, wait!" It was Mirajane. I kept walking but she soon caught up with me. "Wow, you're fast." She said breathlessly.

"I'm sorry I left, I just need to get home." I said.

"I heard everything Levy said. I can't believe she did that to you, Lulu." Mira put an arm around my shoulders.

"Yeah, me neither."

"I tell you what, why don't you come with me?" Mira asked.

"Where are you going?"

"To meet my boyfriend and a few other kids from school at the beach."

I thought about it for a second. If I said no I'd just go home and watch TV which is exactly why Levy thinks I'm boring. Well, not any more. "Sure, lets go!" I said.

"Awesome!" Mira grabbed my hand and pulled me onwards to the beach.

* * *

It was starting to get a little dark by the time we got to the beach and there was definitely a chill in the air. If I'm honest, I was a little nervous about meeting Mira's boyfriend. I'd never spoken to him before but I'd seen them together. He was pretty intimidating. Practically everyone at school worshipped him though.

"Where is everybody?" I asked as Mira pulled off her shoes. Her toes were so beautifully pedicured that mine would look like trolls feet compared to hers.

"They're over past those big rocks." Mira pointed across the sand to a big pile of jagged boulders that had fallen from the cliffs around the beach.

"Have we got to get over them?" I asked.

"Yeah, we can just climb." Mira shrugged.

"Then should you really be taking your shoes off?" I asked. Her feet would get cut to pieces if she tried to climb bare foot.

"Did I say climb? I meant my big heroic boyfriend will lift us." She winked. I laughed a little but to be honest I'd rather climb than have her boyfriend lift me over. "Come on, I'll race ya'." Mira nudged me with her elbow and then took off down the beach, leaving me in a cloud of sand. After a second or so of getting the sand out of my eyes, I ran after her. I was soon at her side, despite her head start. There was no one around, it was just the two of us laughing and racing down the beach. From a distance, Mira had always seemed like your typical mean girl- unapproachable and uppity. But seeing her run barefoot with the wind knotting her hair and sea spray dampening her clothes I realised how wrong I'd been. She was fun and down to earth. We both stretched out our arms to touch the boulders in front of us and end our race.

"Whew, you really are fast." Mira said as we both gasped for air. I had won our little race.

"Thanks." I laughed. I looked back up the beach. We had run so far, I hadn't even realised!

"I'm definitely not up for climbing now." Mira got out her phone and began to call someone. We could a ringtone go off just on the other side of the rocks. "Hey, I'm here. Can you do your thing?" She asked.

"Was that your boyfriend?" I asked as she stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

"Yep, He'll be here any second." She smirked. The next thing I know her boyfriend his leaping over the rocks and landing courageously by our sand in a cloud of sand. "That was a little dramatic." Mira teased.

"What ever, do you want my help or not?" He asked with a roll of his eyes. They weren't the most affectionate couple around, that was for sure.

"Wait, Laxus, this is Lucy. Lucy, Laxus." Mira turned Laxus round to face me. I wish she hadn't. He towered over me and stared down with a blank expression that made my palms sweat.

"Uh, hi." I smiled.

"Hey, nice to meet you." He said then immediately turned back to Mira. I breathed a sigh of relief behind his back and wiped my sweaty palms on my school skirt.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Ready." Mira said. Laxus grabbed her and flung her up the side of boulders. She flew threw the air and gripped the rocks with ease, hauling herself up. "Now Lucy!" She said as she stood herself up on the top boulder.

"What? I can't do that!" I squealed.

"Sure you can,Lulu, it's easy!" Mira waved. Laxus turned to me and reached for my waist but I swatted him away, which he probably didn't like.

"It's okay, I'll just climb up." I said.

"You sure?" Laxus asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah, no prob'"I lied. Laxus shrugged and began his climb. He was so tall that he was up and over in no time. Him and Mira jumped down and disappeared over the other side.

"Great." I sighed as I reached for the first rock. It was much sharper that I was expecting, maybe I should have just accepted Laxus's help. "You made your bed, Lucy, now you have to lie in it." I said to myself and continued to clamber up the rock side. After a few minutes I had actually made it to the top. I stood up and looked down at Mira on the other side, feeling rather proud of myself.

"Jump." She said.

"It's way to high, I'll just climb down." I said.

"It's gonna be a lot harder if you do that." Laxus said. He was probably right, but as I looked down I just couldn't bring myself to take that leap. So I lowered myself off the edge and tried to find somewhere to place my feet.

"You know, it's much scarier coming down, than it is going up." I said as I reached around for a rock to hold.

"Wait, Lucy, don't grab that." Some one called out. That was Gray! I looked up to find myself clasping a rather angry looking crab. I screamed and threw the crab away, forgetting that I was hanging off a boulder. Gravity did it's job and pulled me down through the air.

"Ooph" I grunted as I hit the ground.

"Lucy, are you okay?" There was Gray's voice again. I opened my eyes to find him staring down at me against the background of the deep blue sky.

"How embarrassing." I groaned.


	4. Rock Pools

"You okay?" Gray asked, holding out a hand for me to take.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." I said as I allowed him to pull me back to my feet.

"You sure, Lulu? That was quite a fall." Mira said. Everyone was staring at me and I could feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment. I shook my head with a smile.

"I'm fine, honestly." I waved them all off and walked towards the water. I wanted to wash the sand off of my hands. Gray followed me and stood at my side as I crouched down where the water met with the soft sand. He wasn't saying anything, just watching me wash my hands in the salty water. I wasn't expecting him to be here. He crouched down next to me then and grabbed my hand. It shocked me a little and I stared at him, but he was focused on my palm.

"You cut your hand." He said.

"Huh?" I looked down to find blood pooling in the palm of my hand. "I didn't even realise." I said. It didn't really hurt, maybe my hand was too cold to feel it.

"We need to get it bandaged." He stood up, still with my wrist in his hand.

"Gray, wait. I don't want to go yet." I said, looking around. There was about eight of us all together. Mira and her boyfriend were lighting a fire; there were a couple girls paddling near us and a couple of other guys were opening up a drinks cooler. It looked like fun and I'd only just gotten there. I stood up so Gray and I were level again.

"Have you got a tissue?" He asked.

"I do actually!" I smiled and pulled out a pack of tissues from my cardigan pocket.

"Okay." Gray took a tissue from me and pressed it to the palm of my hand. "Now a hair tie." He said.

"What?"

"Come on, give me your hair tie." He playfully flicked my pony tail.

"Um, okay." I said. I pulled at my hair tie and my hair fell around my face in a wild mess. Gray took the tie from me and wrapped it around the tissue, cleverly securing it to my hand.

"That'll do until you get home." He said, giving me back my hand.

"Thanks, Gray." I smiled, admiring his handy work. One of the other boys joined us then, holding out two cans beer. Gray shook his head and then looked at me, as if waiting to see what my response would be. It wasn't like I _wanted_ one, but if Gray hadn't of been looking at me the way he was then I probably would have accepted- but I didn't. The boy shrugged, cracked one open for himself and then joined Mira and Laxus at the fire. Mira was sat in-between Laxus's legs and he had her wrapped tightly in his embrace. A warm smile spread across my face. I wished I had a relationship like that with someone.

"Are you coming, or not?" Gray asked, breaking me out of my trance. I looked up to find Gray walking away along the waters edge. His hands were buried deep in his hoody pockets and he had rolled his jeans up so he could drag his feet through the water.

"Uh, yeah. Wait up." I hurried after him until I made it to his side. This was only my second time meeting him but for some reason I felt like I'd known him for years. He acted so natural around me. We walked quietly along the sand, letting the ocean waves fill the silence between us. It was peaceful and I felt totally at ease in his company. We walked all the way to a gathering of rock pools. When I was younger my mum would bring me to the beach, with a little bucket and spade, and we would try and catch little fish or crabs from the rock pools that dotted the beach near our house. The thought of those memories made me light up with excitement. I rushed forward and knelt down by one of the pools, leaning in over it's edge.

"I wish we had a bucket." I swirled my good hand through the water, trying to wake up any fish that may have been swimming around in the there.

"You wanna' catch something?" Gray asked as he knelt down beside me.

"Yeah, my mum and I used catch fish all the time." I smiled.

"Oh, yeah?" Gray looked at me with a warm expression.

"I remember once, I convinced her to let me take one home." I began telling him. "I put it in a bowl on my bedside table."

"Did you have any pet fish already?" He asked.

"Nope." I shook my head. "That night I couldn't sleep. I just watched it but it wasn't swimming or doing anything."

"Was it dead?" Gray cringed.

"No!" I laughed. "I think he was lonely. I took him from an ocean of family and placed in a bowl all on his own."

"That's kinda sad." Gray said.

"I know. So, I carried the bowl to my parent's room, woke up my mum and asked her to take me back to the beach."

"And did she?" Gray asked.

"Yep. We drove all the way back to the beach and popped the little guy back in the rock pool we'd found him in." I finished sharing my little story and looked up at Gray. He was smiling at me so warmly I felt my cheeks turning pink. I quickly turned my attention back to the pool before I blushed any more.

"Lets dip our feet!" I stood up suddenly and carefully stepped in to the water.

"What if there's crabs in there?" Gray asked.

"There isn't." I swirled my foot around the entirety of the pool, just to make sure.

"If you say so." Gray stepped in to and we sat on the side with our feet plunged in the cold water. "So, what happened?" Gray asked.

"Huh?"

"You said your mum and you _used_ to catch fish. Did you just grow out of it?" He asked. I didn't know what to say. We barely knew each other, I normally wouldn't have shared something so heavy with someone.

"Um, she passed away." I said, raising my foot out of the water and dropping it back in again. You could see the goosebumps on my legs. Gray didn't say anything. He just shrugged out of his hoody and wrapped it around my shoulders.

"I'm sorry." He said softly.

"It's okay. I still feel her in my memories, like when I was telling you about the fish. I could almost feel her beside me, helping me pour the fish into the water."

"She sounds like a great mum." He smiled genuinely.

"Yeah, she was." I looked up into the sky and watched as a few shining stars twinkled against the setting sun.

* * *

Gray and I walked back towards the fire to join the others. I had put my arms through the sleeves of his hoody and began wearing it properly. It was miles too big but I felt safe wrapped up in it's fleecy warmth. It smelt comforting too. There were empty beer cans littering the sand around the others and the general atmosphere was loud and rowdy. Mira looked up as Gray and I approached and her face lit up.

"Where have you two been?" She asked, jumping out of her boyfriend's lap.

"Just to the rock pools." I pointed behind us but it was too dark to see now.

"Hey, Gray. Did ya' catch anything?" One of the guys smirked. I rolled my eyes, we all knew exactly what he was implying. Gray simply walked past the guy and casually kicked a cloud of sand in his face as he did. I laughed, so did the others.

"Shut it, Loke." Gray said as he sat down next to the guy, who was now cough and spluttering.

"Nice hoody, Lulu." Mira whispered to me with a wink, before returning to the comfort of Laxus's embrace. I stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. I didn't know who to sit next to. I'd feel like a third wheel if I sat next to Mira and Laxus and I didn't really know the others. I looked to Gray.

"Are you sitting down, or what?" He asked and gestured for me to sit next to him. We spent the rest of the evening swapping stories over the fire. I learnt that the other two girls there were Bisca Connell and Laki Olieatta. They were boths really nice, I think I even convinced them to join Acting Class. I'd met so many new people in just one day! My status as the school's outsider was slowing melting away. I was beginning to feel like I should do stuff like this more often and Mira agreed. "Hey, Lulu." She called from across the fire.

"Yeah?"

"Give me your number, we should do this more often." She smiled.

"Okay, sure!" I called out my number and watched as she saved it in to her phone.

"I'll text you so you have my number too." She said. I pulled out my phone to save her number when horror flashed before my eyes.

"Oh, no!" I breathed.

 ** _5 Missed Calls From Hellen_**

 ** _3 Texts From Hellen_**

"What's wrong?" Gray asked.

"Oh my god, no! I forgot I was meant to be meeting my Aunt for dinner hours ago!" I got up from the fire and ran back to the wall of boulders I had to climb.

"Lulu, where are you going?" Mira called after me.

"I'm sorry, Mira. But I have to go!" I yelled as I began to climb. But I had forgotten about my hand. As I reached for a rock a searing pain shot through my palm. "Ow!" I pulled my hand close to my chest and stepped off, back in to the sand.

"Let me help." Gray said as he moved past me and made his way up the rock wall with complete ease.

"How does that help me?" I asked.

"I'll pull you up." He said.

"I don't know..." I backed away. He crouched down and reached out a hand.

"Come on, I've got you." He said. There was a confidence in his voice that reassured me. I took a deep breath.

"Okay." I said and stepped up to the boulders.

"Now, I'm gonna pull you up. All you have to do is use your feet to walk up the rocks."

"Okay." I nodded. I reached out my good hand and placed it in Gray's. He locked his grip around my hand and began to pull. He lifted me like I didn't weigh a thing, which I can assure you isn't the case. I wasn't the lightest person around, but he pulled me up like I was. Carefully and nervously I walked up the rocks like he told me to and I was at the top with him in no time. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Thank you." I smiled sincerely.

"No problem." He said then leapt down to the other side. "Come on." He held out his arms and gestured for me to jump in to them.

"What?" I panicked.

"I'll catch you." He said.

"No, Gray-"

"-Lucy, just jump." He said. So I did. My feet left the boulder top and I was falling through the air. I closed my eyes tight and prepared myself to hit the ground in a heap with Gray. But to my surprise he caught me in his arms and spun on his heals.

"Oh my god." I laughed in relief as Gray put me down and my feet met with the soft sand once again. "Thank you." I said with a giggle.

"Don't mention. Now, where do you live? I'll walk you home." He smiled.

 **x :) x**


	5. Aquarium

Gray walked me right to my door. It was completely dark out so I was glad to have him with me. I rummaged through my pockets to find my key whilst Gray stood swinging back and forth. For some reason, it felt like we were coming back from a date. I wondered if he felt the same way.

"Thanks for walking me home." I said as I pulled out my key at last.

"Happy to do it." He said. I wanted to invite him in but it was late and I had some explaining to do to Helen.

"I'll see you soon?" I asked.

"Definitely." He nodded as he walked back down my porch steps. Then he disappeared in to the darkness of the night. I smiled to myself like a goofball as I slid my key in the lock and opened the door. The lights were on inside which meant Helen was up. _Damn_ I thought. I wanted to slip in without having to talk to her. I felt terrible for missing our dinner, I wanted to just avoid the whole situation. But there she was, sat on the sofa with a book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. I shut the door behind myself and kicked off my shoes, but she didn't even look up. Bracing myself with a deep breath, I walked right up to her and flopped myself down next to her on the sofa.

"I'm so sorry." I began.

"Lucy, it's fine." She said with a sip of wine.

"No, I should have called you. I just completely lost track of time."

"I understand, it happens to me all the time." She finished her wine and got up from the sofa.

"We can have dinner tomorrow." I suggested with a smile as I followed her in to the kitchen.

"I can't tomorrow. I have a dinner with potential sponsors." She was rinsing her glass under the tap and then placed it delicately in the dish washer. I'd witnessed Helen getting mad at someone just for bringing her the wrong juice so why was she acting so blasé about me standing her up.

"Okay, well the night after?" I asked as she moved around me to leave the room.

"We'll see." She said. "Good night, Lucy." She said and walked away. She wasn't mad at me. It was much worse than that. She was giving me the cold shoulder! I was so surprised, I just watched her walk away. There was nothing I could say to her when she was like this, I'd just have to wait for her to come to me when she was ready. I bandaged my hand and went upstairs to bed. As I crashed in to the comfort of my pillow I realised I was still zipped up in Gray's hoody. I raised my hands to my face and breathed in the smell Gray had left on the soft material.

* * *

The next morning, Helen was already gone before I had even woken up. I wanted to ask her advice on what to do about Levy and I. Helen had tons of girl friends and I had a feeling she'd know exactly what to say. To be honest, I was nervous about going to school that day. Levy and I hadn't fallen out like this before. She'd normally text me or ring me if we ever had a disagreement. But this time, nothing. Which one of us would break the silence? Despite how much I didn't want to go, I grabbed my bag and headed for school. To my surprise, as I was walking down the road Mirajane ran up behind me and threw her arms around my shoulders.

"Gotcha, Lulu." She said as she tightened her embrace.

"Hey, Mira." I laughed.

"What happened to you last night?" She asked as she dropped her arms and walked at my side.

"I forgot I was meant to be having dinner with my aunt." I said.

"Oh no, was she mad?"

"She didn't act it but I could tell she was."

"Well, at least Gray walked you home." Mira nudged me with her elbow and shot me a cheeky smile.

"Stop." I said and playfully pushed her arm away.

"Come on, did you two kiss last night?" She asked. My cheeks burnt with embarrassment suddenly.

"What? No!" I said with a frantic with a wave of my hands and a shake of my head.

"Okay, okay. Don't get your panties in a twist." She smirked. It was weird. I'd know Mira for all of a few hours, but I already felt so close to her. Maybe it was because she was so open about everything. Nothing seemed too embarrassing or too uncomfortable for her- at least as far as I could tell. It wasn't long before we were at the school gates, where Levy was stood with Gajeel. They looked like they were talking about something serious until Levy spotted me and the two of them stopped talking immediately. Levy placed a light kiss on Gajeel's cheek and then shooed him away. I sighed heavily, wondering what would happen between us.

"What? What's wrong?" Mira asked.

"There's Levy." I nodded discreetly in Levy's general direction.

"Don't worry, just show confidence." Mira puffed out her chest and stood tall. I couldn't help but laugh a little. For a second, it looked like Levy was going to come over but in the end she just hurried through the gates and I lost her in the crowd of other students. I was sad. Things shouldn't be like this between us. Her desk was next to mine in class, maybe I can talk to her there.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped through the classroom door and walked to my desk with confidence- like Mira said. I sat in my desk and turned to my right to speak to Levy, but she wasn't there. Lisanna was staring back at me with a wide smile spread across her face.

"Lisanna?" I said.

"Hey, Lucy."

"Where's Levy?" I asked.

"She asked to switch with me." Lisanna said.

"She did?" I asked sadly. I looked towards the front of the class where I spotted levy chatting with a group of girls that had gathered around her new desk. She didn't seem upset at all. I couldn't believe it. Why would she ask to switch? I couldn't concentrate on anything for the rest of the day. Levy was avoiding me like the plague. When the bell rang for lunch she ran out the class room before I was even out of my desk; And at the end of the day she did the same thing. I watched from a distance as she met Gajeel at the school gates and walked away with him, hand in hand. Was she just completely over our friendship already? Did she not even want to try to patch things up? This wasn't like her at all. I put my headphones in and walked home with my head hung low.

* * *

When I got home, I put on some comfy clothes, crashed on the sofa and scrolled through my FaceBook newsfeed on my laptop. I had one notification.

 _ **Mirajane**_ **_Strauss Tagged You In A Picture:_**

 _Love this girl **Lucy Heartfelia**_

It was a picture the two of us had taken in front of the fire from the night before. We were both pouting playfully with our arms around each other. I loved the picture and the comment she wrote with it, so I commented back.

 _ **Mirajane Strauss** Love you too x_

It's weird how people find their way in to your lives. I mean, thanks to Levy throwing an unwanted party at my house, I'd found a new friendship in Mirajane. There was suddenly a knock on my door. I didn't bother getting up, it was probably just Helen. She always did that; Knock before she'd even looked for her keys. But then the knock came again and this time it was louder. I put my laptop to one side and tip toed to the door. Peering through the view finder, I saw Natsu stood on my porch. I gasped. I had completely forgotten that we were supposed to be hanging out tonight, I'd also forgotten he knew where I lived. I unlocked the door and pulled it open. He looked handsome, dressed in baggy jeans and black long sleeved top.

"Hey, you ready?" He asked with a smile. I looked down at my fleece leggings tucked in to woolly socks, matched with a grubby pyjama top. Here comes red cheeks again.

"Um, sure. Let me just go grab my jacket." I said and quickly shut the door in his face. I ran upstairs, undressing as I went and chucking my clothes on the floor.

"What do I wear?" I asked myself as I rummaged through my wardrobe. "I mean, is this a date? Where is he taking me? Should I dress warm? Or should I dress smart?" I rambled on as I pulled clothes out of my wardrobe and held them up to myself in the mirror. After a few more minutes of manically trying on clothes, I settled on a denim skirt with thick black tights and a long sleeve purple top. I grabbed a black leather jacket as I ran down the stairs, put on a pair of black ankle boots and ,after one quick check in the mirror, headed out the door. Natsu was sat on the top step of my porch, staring in to space. How long had I kept him waiting?

"Sorry about that." I said as I locked the door.

"No problem." Natsu stood up and the two of us made our way down the street.

"So, where are we going?" I asked.

"How do you like fish?" He asked in return.

"Sushi? Yeah, it's tasty." I smiled. Sushi actually sounded pretty good to me. Natsu started to laugh. "What? Why are you laughing?" I asked.

"We're going to an aquarium." He chuckled.

"Oh, I knew that." I grinned.

"Uh-hu." Natsu smirked.

* * *

A short bus ride later and Natsu and I were at the pier and making our way to the Aquarium. I was excited, I hadn't been to an aquarium since I was a little girl. As we approached the doors I realised I had left my bag and purse at home, I'd been in such a rush. _Oh no_ I thought. I can't ask him to pay for me, how rude would that be? I started to panic but to my surprise, as we got through the door Natsu pulled out his wallet.

"Two tickets, please." He said to the man behind the desk. Without a word, he paid for my ticket and handed it to me with a smile. Was this a date? I mean, traditionally the guy pays for everything on the date, right?

"Thank you." I took the ticket and held it tight.

"Come on, I heard they've got a special mermaid show just this week." He grinned.

"No way!" The two of us headed through the doors to the first exhibit. It was a long glass tunnel that lead straight through a giant water tank. It was like walking through the bottom of the ocean. We walked along in amazement at all the different types of fish. We read all the panels of information and laughed together at the funny looking fish that swam at the glass. Natsu would do impressions of the really ugly ones, it made me laugh every time. He was so goofy and adorable.

"Whoa, Lucy, look at this!" He called me over to a strange looking whole in the wall.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You put your head in this pod, it's like your really in the water!" He beamed. "Lets give it a go."

The two of us squeezed our heads into the pod and admired the watery world around us. Every kind of little rainbow fish you could think of was swimming around us like confetti falling through the air.

"Wow." I gasped.

"Pretty cool, right?" Natsu said.

"It's amazing." I said in awe. A fish raced past the glass and I turned my head quickly to watch it as it went, forgetting how close Natsu and I were. We were now stood face to face, so close the tip of my nose was almost touching his. There wasn't much air in that little pod and the two of us were breathing heavily, not saying a word. I could feel his breath on my face and no doubt he could feel mine. It was such an intimate moment. I thought about leaning forward and kissing him right there surrounded by the water, but I held myself back. I just watched him, taking in every inch of his face. His dark eyes, the his mouth and rosy cheeks. He was so handsome, if it hadn't been clear to me before it certainly was now.

"Phew, it's hot in here." I said eventually with a deep breath.

"Yeah, no kidding." Natsu said.

"Lets get out of here." I said. The two of us slipped out of the pod and moved on to the next exhibit as if nothing had happened. Well, I mean, nothing had happened. Maybe I just imagined the intimacy, maybe Natsu had been completely oblivious to the whole situation.

We made it to the auditorium just in time for the mermaid show. We sat in the rows of seat with all the other guests and got ready for the performance.

"I'm so excited!" I tapped my feet on the floor with glee. Natsu smiled at me as the lights went down and the giant above ground pool in front of us suddenly lit up with multicoloured spotlights.

"Ladies and Gentleman, are you ready for our mermaids?" A lady with a micro phone asked as she walked around the pool. All the children in the audience screamed and yelled in response. All of a sudden, women in beautiful mermaid costumes emerged and dove in to the colourfully lit pool. Water erupted over the sides as the mermaids continued to dive in and out of the water. Their costumes glistened in the water as they swam through the pool.

"Am I the only one who totally wants to try that?" Natsu asked me. I laughed.

"No, I totally want to try it." I smiled as the show continued.

* * *

I was kind of sad to leave the aquarium, I'd had such a good time. Natsu and I left in a crowd of other guests and it was getting a little dark. I hadn't realised how many people were in the aquarium and the crowd was making me a little nervous. Without even thinking, I grabbed a hold of Natsu's sleeve and held it tight. He looked at me then.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Um, yeah. Yeah, It's just the crowd." I said frantically. I realised then, I used to spend so much time at home on my own that I wasn't used to going out among big crowds of people. Now each time I was in a crowd, would I start to panic?

"It's okay, I've got you." Natsu smiled. He peeled my hand off of his sleeve and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close and guiding me through the mass of people. We were out in the open in no time and I felt like I could breath again.

"Thank you." I said with a little laugh. He took his arm back and turned to face me.

"Big crowds make you panic, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said timidly, noticing that the mass of people were heading towards the bus stop. Natsu noticed too.

"Damn." He said as he rummaged through his pockets.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I lost my bus ticket, I guess we're gonna' have to walk." He said with a light hearted shrug.

"Thank you." I said with a genuine smile. Natsu winked and the two of us began the walk home.

"So, what did you think of the mermaids?" Natsu asked.

"I liked them, they reminded me of Aquarius." I said.

"Like, the star sign?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah, I'm an Aquarius." I smiled.

"Oh, yeah? What am I?" Natsu asked.

"Well, when's your birthday?"

"July seventh." Natsu said.

"You are a Leo, Leo the Lion." I said.

"Is that a good sign?" Natsu asked.

"They're all good." I laughed. "Leo is a fire sign, ruled by the sun." I ran my hand across the sky as I described his sign.

"Fire sign, eh?" He said. "I like the sound of these signs." He said with a grin.

"My mum was really interested in astrology so growing up, she taught me all about the twelve signs." I said.

"Can you teach me?" Natsu asked. No one every really took an interest in astrology when I brought it up before.

"Yeah, sure!" I smiled. The rest of the walk home was long and sort of romantic. We would stop to stare at the stars and I would tell Natsu what all the different constellations meant. It felt nice to teach someone what my mum had taught me and Natsu seemed genuinely interested in it all.

Just like Gray had, Natsu walked me right to my door. The lights weren't on in the house so I guessed Hellen wasn't home yet. There was a part of me that wanted to invite Natsu in, but once again I held myself back. We stood on the top step of my porch swaying back and forth.

"Thank you for tonight, I had a really good time." I smiled.

"Yeah, me too. We should hang out again, soon." He said.

"Definitely." I nodded.

"Well, I'll see ya' later Lucy." He said with a wink and then hopped down the porch steps. As I unlocked my door and got inside the house I felt all giggly and excited. I'd never been on a date before and I know we hadn't exactly called that a date, but still, it felt like one to me. I ran through the living room and jumped on the sofa before letting out a little squeal of excitement. Then my phone rang. I grabbed it immediately in the hope that it was Levy but it turned out to be Mira.

"Hey." I answered.

"Hey, Lulu. You better be free this Friday night." She said.

"I am, what's up?" I asked.

"You are officially invited to mine and Lisanna's annual camp out." Mira said excitedly.

"A camp out?"

"Yeah, it's great. The boys come too. We toast marshmallows and play tricks on eachother and skinny dip in the lake." She said and I could tell if she was sat with me she'd be nudging me and winking.

"Well, I'm not sure about the skinny dipping, but you can count me in for everything else." I said. A camp out did sound like fun and if Levy was going it might be exactly what we need to fix our friendship.

"Yes! See ya' later, Lulu." She said and hung up the phone before I could even respond. I laid back on the sofa and replayed the whole evening in my head.

 **x :) x**

* * *

 **A/N**

 _Thank you for reading my story so far, I hope you're enjoying it! I decided to make Natsu a Leo because as I was reading through the star signs I thought wow, that really sounds like Natsu and same goes for Lucy being Aquarius. I'm really looking forward to the next chapter which is of course going to be the camp out! I see a kiss in Lucy's future!_

 _Also, quick question. Who are you guys rooting for? Nalu or Gralu?_


	6. The Camp Out Begins

The week went by in a blur. Helen was still giving me the cold shoulder and Levy was avoiding me more than ever. She would sneak out of school to spend lunch with Gajeel and kept her new seat at the front of the class room. But I found friendship in Mira and Lisanna. They took me under their wing and welcomed me in to their group. Thursday night I even had dinner at their house with Cana and Juvia. They were so excited about the camp out. They would talk about what pyjamas they were going to wear and what snacks to bring, but mainly what tricks they would play on the boys. I must admit I was pretty excited too. I'd only ever camped out with my parents at a local camp site, so camping with friends out in the wild sounded like a whole lot of fun. When the school bell finally rang for the end of the day on Friday I almost squealed with excitement. I just had to get acting class out of the way and then I could head home and pack my things for the weekend. I gathered my books and chucked them in my bag then headed down the corridor with everyone else. The acting class room was in sight and I was nearing it's entrance, when I was suddenly grabbed by my wrists and pulled to one side.

"Lulu, you're coming with us!" Mira demanded as her and Lisanna stood before me, still holding on to my wrists.

"But I having acting class." I said.

"You can skip it just this once." Lisanna said.

"I can't you guys."

"Yes, you can. Come on, Lulu. We're going shopping for camping supplies." Mira grinned. It did sound tempting and I had just been thinking that afternoon that I needed to get some camping supplies. I stood there contemplating it for a minute before I finally gave in.

"Oh, okay! Lets go." I said. The three of us ran down the hall and out of the school, giggling as if we were up to no good. We headed to the mall in town and they showed me all their favourite places to shop.

"So, what exactly do we need to get for tonight?" I asked, slightly confused as to why we were entering a fancy looking night wear store.

"Some cute pyjamas." Mira began flicking through a hanger of silky pyjama sets.

"Pyjamas?" I laughed. "I thought we were getting tents and food, you know, important stuff?"

"The guys bring all that stuff." Lisanna shrugged.

"Are you sure?" I asked, not entirely convinced. I didn't like the idea of relying on the guys to bring everything.

"Yep, don't worry, Lulu. It's all organised." Mira smiled.

"Well, okay then." I began looking through the racks myself. I didn't want any of this silky stuff, I wanted something warm and cosy. Lisanna must have felt the same way.

"Hey, Lucy." She called from across the shop. "I think this is more our style." She laughed and I rushed to her side.

"Yeah, I think you're right." I said as I admired the fleecy and colourful array of pyjama sets in front of us. I settled on a baby pink, over-sized jumper and pink flowery leggings. Lisanna also chose an over-sized jumper, except hers was blue and covered in little clouds. Mira, on the other hand, bought a skimpy red vest top with white shorts and knee high socks. Lisanna rolled her eyes as we left the shop, admiring each other's purchases.

"She buys something like that every year." Lisanna said to me. Every year? How many years had they been doing this camp out thing? If they had been doing it for that long, how had I never heard of it until now?

"Mira, you're going to freeze in that." I said.

"That's what Laxus is for, you guys. As soon as I start to look cold he'll wrap his big, warm arms around me." Mira held her carrier bag close to her chest and smiled with excitement. Did she really have to make herself freeze just to get Laxus to hold her? After we finished up our shopping we headed back home. I went back to mine and Mira and Lisanna went back home to their's. It was about five O'clock and I had to be at Mira's house by six so I rushed upstairs to finish my packing. I had a small backpack full of clothes, my wash bag, my phone and headphones, my swimsuit and a torch. I also packed Gray's hoody to give back to him, although I desperately wanted to keep it. My sleeping bag I could carry separately along with a pillow.

"All packed." I said as I zipped up my backpack and flung it over my shoulder. I turned around to leave the room when I was surprised by Helen leaning in my doorway. "You made me jump." I said with a little smile.

"Where are you going?" She asked. She smelt like wine so I guessed she'd just got back from a bar somewhere- she often held her "meetings" at bars. I was beginning to think it was just an excuse for her to drink and gossip with her co-workers.

"I'm going camping with some friends, I was going to call you." I said.

"Oh. Well, that works out quite well actually." She said. Then I heard laughter coming from down stairs.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "And who's that down stairs?"

"A few of my girlfriends from work. We're heading off Milan tonight." She said with a wide smile.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" I asked.

"Susanne has a contact in Milan who would apparently love to be a part of our business and he wanted to fly us out to meet with him. So we decided to just make it a little holiday." She said. "I mean, god knows I deserve one."

"Unbelievable." I shook my head and made my way past her. How could she do that? She didn't know I was going camping, she was just going to come home and dump the news on me that she was leaving for Milan. What is with her?

"Lucy, wait." She said and grabbed my arm.

"No, I have to get to Mira's house." I shrugged out of her grip and rushed down the stairs. I could hear her following me close behind.

"What's wrong with you? Come back." She grabbed my arm again and stopped me half way down the stairs. I sighed heavily, trying to remain level headed.

"I can't believe you're leaving me like this, again." I said. But the sad thing was, I could believe it. She was always leaving me, so I was more than used to it by now.

"You're going away, too." She tried to smile but I didn't return the favour.

"But you didn't know that. And I'm only going to be gone for two nights, how long are you gone for?" I asked.

"Five nights." She said. I simply turned around and continued to march down the stairs, shaking my head as I went. "I'll see you when I get back!" She called from the stairs, but I was already closing the door behind me and leaving for Mira's house.

Walking to Mira's house, I felt a mixture of emotions. Excitement was at the forefront but a part of me felt nothing but sad. I knew that after camping I'd just be returning to that big empty house. Why couldn't Helen stay with me? Why did my parent's have to leave me with her?

* * *

Mira sat Lisanna and I down in the living room and began pacing the floor in front of us.

"Uh, Mira, is everything okay?" I asked. "I think you're wearing a whole in the floor."

"Okay, girls." Mira turned to us and put her hands on her hips. "As you know, last year the boys got us good with the whole 'Lake Monster' prank."

"Lucy wasn't there remember, Mira?" Lisanna added. As if I wasn't already feeling a little left out, I certainly was now. I hoped there wasn't going to be much talk of _last year_ , since I wasn't even there.

"Right." Mira nodded. "Basically, Lulu, It's our turn to get them back." Mira said with an evil glint in her eyes.

"What did you have in mind?" I grinned.

"Brace yourself, ladies." Mira ran in to the other room with excitement. Lisanna and I began to laugh.

"Is it just me or are you starting to get nervous?" I asked Lisanna with a giggle.

"No, I'm nervous too. Even I have no idea what her plan is." Lisanna said. Mira returned to us then wearing a blood splattered T-shirt. She had something held behind her back but I couldn't quite tell what it was.

"Tada!" She yelled as she showed off her bloodied clothes.

"I don't get it." Lisanna said.

"We're going to make them think we we're attacked by this!" Mira exclaimed as she revealed a giant bear's head to us from behind her back.

"A floating bear head?" Lisanna asked sceptically. Mira rolled her eyes at her sister.

"The rest of the costume is packed away in my suitcase." Mira said. She was taking a suitcase with her? We were only going for two nights. Then again, I guess she needed the room for the bear costume. "I have bloody T-shirts for all of us." She added.

"I like it." I said.

"Thank you, Lulu." Mira said and then shot Lisanna a look.

"I like it too." Lisanna sighed with reluctance.

"Great! Erza has agreed to wear the bear costume and I have an app on my phone that has animal sound effects on it. So I'm thinking, we wait until everyone is asleep, and by everyone I mean the boys, and then we set our plan in motion." Mira tapped her fingers together like an evil genius would. She was sort of scary. I definitely didn't want to ever be on her bad side. There was a knock at the door that made the three of us leap out of our skin.

"That's Laxus, he can't see the bear!" Mira said as she ran upstairs, taking the weird bear head with her.

"I'll get it, then." Lisanna rolled her eyes and answered the door.

"You girls ready?" Laxus asked. He was driving us to the woods.

"Uh, yeah. Mira's just bringing her suitcase down." Lisanna said, moving aside to let Laxus in the house. He spotted me on the sofa and nodded at me, I waved back.

"I should of known she'd be bringing a suitcase. It's a good job the other guys have got the tents in their car." Laxus said. Then Mira appeared at the top of the stairs, hauling her suitcase behind her. Laxus rushed up the stairs and lifted her suitcase with one hand.

"Lets go!" Mira cheered.

* * *

It was about a forty-five minute car journey to the woods. The girls said they go to the same spot, near the lake, every year. Which meant we had to park on the outskirts of the woods and walk through an over grown trail to make it to the lake. We stopped at a beautiful clearing that definitely looked large enough to set up camp and the view of the lake was incredible. You could tell people often camped here. There was a burnt patch of ground in the centre of the clearing where people had clearly been burning a fire and big, chunky logs had been placed around it to create seating. There was also a rope swing hanging from one of the trees that you could fly off of and in to the water. Laxus told me that they had been the ones to tie the rope up there a couple years back. Mira had asked Laxus to pack some camping chairs which we set up and sat in while we waited for the others to arrive. After about thirty minutes the others were bustling through the trees. Loke had driven himself, Natsu, Gray and Erza to the woods, along with our tents and all the food. My heart almost stopped as I saw Natsu and Gray emerge through the trees together. I had no idea the two of them knew eachother. Why did it make me nervous be in one place with the two of them? I shook the feeling away and focused on having a good time.

"Lucy, it's good to see you." Erza said as she approached Laxus, Lisanna, Mira and I.

"You too, Erza." I smiled.

"Who's ready for a camp out?" Loke cheered as he held up two crates of beer in either hand.

"Just two crates?" Laxus asked with a raised brow.

"It's all I can carry, there's more in the car." Loke replied, setting the beer down in front of us.

"We've got the tents." Gray said as he and Natsu joined us.

"How many?" Lisanna asked.

"Four two-man tents." Gray replied.

"Well, Laxus and I will be in one." Mira said immediately.

"Lucy and I will share one." Loke said as he made his way behind my chair and placed his hands on my shoulders. This was only the second time I had met this guy, he was so forward. I looked up at Gray and saw his jaw tighten as he watched Loke and I intently.

"Back off, Loke. Lucy's with me." Lisanna said as she swatted his hands away from me.

"Hold on, that means I'll have to share with a boy!" Erza announced with a look of dread.

"Not me." Natsu said with a laugh.

"Not me." Gray added.

"Looks like it's me and you, Erzy baby." Loke said. He was suddenly at Erza's side, slithering his arm around her waist. He sure moves on fast.

"Get away from me." Erza growled.

"Erza will share with us." Lisanna offered.

"Yeah, that's fine with me." I said.

The boys started to unpack the tents and I began to wonder where Levy was. When I asked Mira if Levy was invited she had told me that she was. Don't tell me she wasn't here just because I was.

I felt pretty useless as I watched the boys struggling with the tents. The other girls and I were simply sat around in the camping chairs making a start on the beers while the boys did all the work. In the end the urge to help got too much for me and I jumped up from my chair.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked the boys.

"We've got it." Loke said as he hammered tent pegs in to the ground, I could tell he was doing it wrong but I didn't want to embarrass him.

"You can help me." Natsu suddenly appeared at my side. I jumped back, not expecting to see him there, and let out a little squeal.

"You made me jump." I laughed. "What do you need help with? I thought you were setting up the tents with the other guys."

"Nah, I'm in charge of the fire!" He said with a glint in his eye.

"Oh god." I breathed in horror.

"Come on, I need some help gathering wood." He grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the camp and through the trees.

"Wait, I need my supplies!" I said as he pulled me further in to the woods.

"Supplies?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah, you know. My torch, some rope, a pocket knife. I also brought some matches. Oh, and a compass!" I said confidently.

"Wow, get you." He said with a smirk. "You really came prepared."

"Well, anyone would look prepared compared to you guys." I said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You guys's main priority was how much beer you could fit in the car." I said with a little laugh.

"That was Loke and Laxus. Gray and I are serious." Natsu said.

"I'll believe it when I see it." I said with wink.

"Then prepare to be impressed." Natsu grinned.

We walked a little further in to the woods, but not too far since it would be getting dark soon, and began looking for wood. Natsu told me that we didn't want anything too damp, since it wouldn't burn, and that crunchy leaves would be good to for the fire too. After a while of rooting around we had a good collection of twigs to take back to camp. The sun was beginning to set so Natsu wanted to get the fire started as quickly as possible. We traipsed through the trees, jumping over logs and climbing under branches as we went. All was well until my foot suddenly got stuck. I pulled and I pulled but it would not budge. Looking down, I found my Wellington boot deep in a puddle of sludge.

"Uh, Natsu." I called out as he carried on marching ahead.

"Yeah?" He yelled, still walking onwards.

"I need some help."

He stopped immediately, dead in his tracks, and turned around. "What ya' doing, Lucy?" He asked as he made his way back to me.

"My foot is stuck." I moaned and pointed to the sludge that had engulfed my precious Wellington boot.

"Well, take your boot off." He shrugged as he finally made it to my side.

"I can't."

"Look, I know you girls love your shoes but-"

"No, Natsu, I literally can't move my foot at all!" I explained, interrupting him.

"Oh." He said, looking a little worried. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then." He said and then began walking away, back to the camp.

"Wait, what?" I asked, confused, as he disappeared in to the distance. He just kept walking. "Natsu, please! I need your help!" I cried. I dropped my firewood and began tugging at my leg as hard as I possibly could, but to no avail. We hadn't even been camping for two hours and I was already in a tricky situation. I know he wanted to get the fire started before the sun went down but how could he just leave me like this? Tears began to trickle down my cheeks as panic set in.

"I knew I should have brought my supplies. I could have gotten my rope and lassoed a tree and pulled myself out of here like a hero." I grumbled to myself. Then I heard snickering. I looked up to find Natsu stood at my side, trying to hide his amusement. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"I was just joking around, of course I wouldn't leave you." He said as he reached out and hand and wiped a tear from my cheek. I blushed as his touch and watched as he bent down and wrapped his arms around my leg. "You ready?" He asked.

"Um, yeah." I took a deep breath and held on to his shoulders for balance. Then, with one big tug, he had pulled me out of the sludge. I was free! He was so strong though that the two of us flew backwards and landed in a muddy heap on the floor. His body was heavy on top of mine, pinning me to the ground. It wasn't for long though. He sat himself up and offered me his hand.

"Thanks." I said as he pulled me up. I hoped I wasn't blushing. The two of us sat on the ground just staring at one another in the silence. I imagined what it would be like to fling myself forward and kiss him beneath the trees. The urge to do so, was building inside me.

 **x ;) x**

* * *

 **A/N**

 _Thank you for reading my story so far! I hope you are enjoying it! The camp out has only just begun and I can't wait for everything that happens whilst the guys are camping. It's going to get a whole lot more exciting!_ :D _Also_ _I'd love to know what you guys are thinking of the story so far, it really means a lot to me when people take the time to not only read my story but review it too :)_


	7. Chicken Fight

My mind was racing. Should I kiss him? Should I just walk away? In the end it wasn't my decision. Natsu jumped up as the trees behind us began to rustle and twigs began to snap beneath the weight of a living being.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I don't know." Natsu said as he turned his head towards the noise. Then, just as silence fell upon us once more, Loke came bursting through the bushes.

"Boo!" He yelled as he jumped towards us. He made me jump out of my skin, Natsu too.

"Loke!" I yelled as I clambered to my feet to punch him in the shoulder.

"Whoa, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you guys." He smirked. I blushed.

"What? You weren't-" I began to argue but Natsu interrupted as he drove his fist straight in to Loke's stomach, knocking Loke to the floor.

"Ooph." Loke grunted as he hit the ground.

"Natsu!" I exclaimed.

"What? He deserved it." Natsu shrugged, picked up the wood we had gathered and headed back to the camp. I stayed behind to help Loke back to his feet. Why were boys always hitting eachother? I'll never understand.

"Are you okay?" I asked as Loke and I wondered through the woods. Loke laughed.

"Yeah, he's hit me harder than that before." He smiled.

"He has?" I asked in shock.

"It's what we do. I'll get him next time."

"Right." I nodded.

"So, what were you two doing on the ground?" Loke asked me with a nudge of his elbow.

"Nothing." I rolled my eyes.

"Looked pretty intense to me." Loke said.

"It did?" I asked. "I mean, no. It was nothing, like I said." I gulped. Loke laughed.

"Okay. What ever you say, Lucy." Loke said with a wink as we emerged through the trees and back in to the camp. It looked great! I mean, It looked like a real camp now. The tents had finally been set up- A blue one, a pink one, a yellow one and a red one. The fire pit had been prepared and was awaiting Natsu to work his magic and get it lit. Mira had brought some things from home to make the place look special. She'd set up lanterns all around the camp, brought fairy lights which she'd hung on each tent and a fold out table which she had topped with sparkling candles and plastic wine glasses. The whole scene looked like something straight off of Pinterest. I rushed over to Mira to express to her how much I loved what she'd done with the place.

"Aw, thanks, Lulu." She said. "Here, have some wine."

"Wine?" I asked. Where did she get wine from?

"Yeah, the boys have their beer and us girls have our wine." Mira said as she poured slightly warm wine in to a plastic wine glass just for me. To be honest, I would have been happy drinking beer, but I sipped from my wine anyway and sat at Mira's feet. We all sat around and watched as Natsu began his work on the fire pit. He stacked the wood we had gathered and began hunting the floor for rocks. There was one right by my foot so I offered it up.

"How about this one?" I asked.

"Perfect. Thanks, Lucy." Natsu grabbed the rock from me and began scraping it against the one he already had. "Are you ready to be amazed?" Natsu asked us all with a grin.

"I'm ready to be warm, would you hurry up already." Gray said. Natsu turned and began scraping the rocks against eachother once more. Sparks began to fly and with in no time at all, there was smoke arising from the fire pit. Natsu threw the rocks to one side and began gently blowing on the smoking kindling. Then we really were amazed as a fire erupted before us and flooded us with a glowing warmth. Every one cheered and clapped as Natsu turned to us with a look of pride on his face.

"That was pretty impressive." I said as Natsu plonked himself down next to me.

"You see, there's a reason I was in charge of the fire." Natsu said as he cracked open a beer.

"Okay. Don't get too cocky, Pyro." I teased.

Erza took control of dinner. She'd brought a whole cooler of food for us to eat over the week end- at least someone was responsible enough to think of something like that. She pushed any one aside that got in her way as she boiled rice and beans over the fire- real traditional camping food. It was delicious. After eating we each had different ideas of how we wanted to spend the evening. Erza wanted to play cards, Loke wanted to play spin the bottle, Natsu and Gray just wanted to wrestle and Lisanna wanted to stargaze. I was just happy being there with everyone so I didn't mind what we did, although I wasn't that keen on wrestling. As we all sat there debating what to do, Mira jumped up, glass of wine in hand.

"I have the best idea!" She said joyfully. Mira had finished off an entire bottle of wine all to herself and it was beginning to show, especially when she kept spilling it over me.

"Oh yeah?" Laxus steadied his girlfriend as she wobbled to her feet.

"Lets. Go. Swimming." She said before polishing off her last drop of wine.

"I like that idea." Loke said.

"Me too." Lisanna added.

"I must admit, an evening swim would be quite refreshing." Erza said.

"But we've all been drinking." I said.

"So?" Mira turned to me then.

"Well, it's kind of dangerous to swim drunk." I said.

"Who's drunk?" Mira asked.

"You are, babe." Laxus said to Mira as he took her plastic glass from her hand.

"Well, I'm going in." Mira shrugged. Laxus looked at me as Mira peeled off her clothes to reveal the bikini she was wearing underneath.

"Don't worry Lucy, the waters not that deep and I'll keep her head above water." Laxus said.

"Yeah, plus I'm a life guard." Loke said over my shoulder.

"You are?" I asked.

"No, he just sits around the side of the pool staring at the girls in their bikinis." Gray said as he removed his shirt.

"Lets go!" Mira cheered as she ran towards the water. Lisanna rolled her eyes before following her sister in to the lake. Laxus and Erza were next, followed by Gray and Loke. I watched as everyone laughed and fell in to the water. I couldn't help but smile.

"You coming in?" Natsu asked me. I hadn't even noticed him removing his shirt, but there he was; half naked in the moon light. I tried not to stare at his perfectly toned torso as he stood before me waiting for my answer.

"I don't know. I'm feeling a little light-headed from the wine." I said shyly.

"Well, I haven't had any so I'll make sure you don't drown." He smiled. I blushed.

"Okay." I said and stripped down to my bikini too. The two of us ran side by side and crashed in to the ice cold water.

"Oh my god! It's freezing!" I said breathlessly as the water washed over me.

"Just keep swimming, you'll get used to it." Natsu said, but I could tell he was just as cold as I was. We swam out to the center of the lake to join the others. Mira had climbed on to Laxus's shoulders and he was striding through the water as she laughed and yelled.

"We should play Chicken!" Mira exclaimed.

"What the hell is that?" Natsu asked.

"You know, the girls get on the guys shoulder's and try to push eachother off in to the water." Lisanna explained.

"Oh, yes. I've heard of this game." Erza said.

"Get up here, Erza." Mira gestured for Erza to fight her.

"You can get on my shoulders." Loke offered. Erza rolled her eyes but agreed. Erza rose out of the water as Loke sat her on top of his shoulders.

"Okay, here are the rules. No hair pulling, no removing each others bikinis and no kicking." Lisanna said. "Got it?"

"Got it." Mira and Erza nodded as they stared at eachother with dark expressions.

"Man, they're scary." I said.

"Tell me about it." Gray added.

"Let round one begin!" Lisanna yelled. With that said Mira and Erza lunged for eachother. Mira went for Erza shoulders and pushed with all her drunken strength. But Erza took a different approach. She reached for Mira's ribs and began to tickle her mercilessly. Mira screamed as Erza tickled her all over, it was clear who was winning this fight. Mira threw her head back in laughter, causing herself to slip right off of Laxus's shoulders. She let out a little yelp before hitting the water with a splash.

"Round one goes to Erza Scarlet!" Lisanna announced.

"Thank you, thank you." Erza bowed upon Loke's shoulders. Laxus pulled Mira out of the water and held her close to his chest, wiping the water away from her eyes. She looked a little stunned, but she was okay and was soon laughing it off.

"Who's next?" Erza asked. She looked between Lisanna and I.

"I'm the referee." Lisanna said, backing away. Then everyone's gaze fell to me. Oh god.

"Uh, I forfeit." I said with a panic.

"Sorry, Lucy. There are no forfeits in the game of Chicken Fight." Erza said.

"But I-" I began to speak but stopped immediately as I watched Gray disappear beneath the water. My heart began to race with fear. "Oh no. No, no no! Gray, don't you dare!" I cried as I watched the water around me ripple and bubble. Then, with out warning, he was grabbing my ankles and lifting me out of the water on his shoulders. I screamed as I emerged from the water. I wrapped my arms around his head to steady myself as he walked us through the water with ease.

"Come on, Lucy. We can take 'em." He said.

"Yeah, yeah we can." I said as I was suddenly over come with a strange confidence, maybe the wine was finally catching up to me or maybe I just felt confident when paired with Gray. I sat up straight and readied myself for the fight.

"Okay. Same rules apply, got it?" Lisanna asked.

"Got it." I nodded as I Erza and I eyed eachother.

"Let round two begin!" Lisanna yelled. I already knew Erza's tactics so I decided to steal them for myself. It was a dirty trick, but I did not want to fall head first in to that water. So I reached forwards and began to tickle her ribs. She began to laugh.

"I see you decided to steal my move." Erza said through laughter.

"Yep." I said as I continued to tickle her but it didn't stop her from fighting back. She began to tickle me in return and I was starting to wobble.

"Come on, Lucy. You've got this!" Gray yelled. With that extra boost of confidence, I knew I was going to win. I gave up on tickling and grabbed hold of Erza's shoulders. With one swift push, she was flying through the air and diving backwards in to the water.

"Yes!" I cheered.

"Nice one, Lucy!" Gray said as he began jumping up and down with me still on his shoulders. Water splashed all around us as we celebrated our victory. Gray dropped beneath the surface and returned me to the water.

"We make a good team." He said as he popped up next to me.

"Yeah, we do." I smiled.

"Good game, you two." Erza nodded towards Gray and I.

After a little longer in the water, we all began to turn blue from the cold and decided to return to the warmth of the camp fire. We put on our new _pj's,_ got wrapped up in blankets and sat together around the fire. Erza brought out a bag of marshmallows and we toasted them over the fire whilst telling stories and listening to music from Mira's phone.

"What a great night." I said as I rested my head on Lisanna's shoulder.

"Well, it's not over yet." Lisanna winked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." I said.

"Come on, lets set this plan in to motion." Lisanna grinned. I nodded.

"Hey, guys. We're gonna' hit the hay." I said. That was my queue to begin Mira's ultimate camping prank. Mira looked up immediately and smiled evilly.

"Yeah, I'm feeling pretty wiped out too." She said.

"I think we could all do with some sleep." Erza rose from the ground and poured water over the shrinking fire.

"See you girls in the morning." Loke said as he disappeared in to his tent.

"It's like he doesn't even know we're here." Gray said to Natsu and Laxus.

"Well, good night." I said as Lisanna, Erza and I zipped up our tent. The next stage of the plan was to wait for Mira to text us to meet her with the bear costume and our bloody clothes.

"This is so weird." I whispered with a laugh.

"Trust me, you get used to it." Lisanna replied as we waited quietly for the text. After about an hour, my phone finally buzzed.

 _Text Message From Mira:_

 _Ok Girls. LETS DO THIS!_

 _xxx_

We unzipped the tent as quietly as we could, climbed out and there was Mira. She was waiting by the fire pit with two rucksacks flung over her shoulders. She gestured for us to follow her and together the four of us disappeared in to the woods. I was beginning to get a little nervous. I had never pulled a prank like this before, what if something went wrong? Which, lets face it, something probably will. Once we were far enough away form the camp Mira stopped us and opened up one of the back packs.

"Erza, here's the bear costume." She handed Erza a bundle of fur and claws, it looked so weird I had to laugh. Erza began fumbling around, trying to get in to the costume.

"Lucy, this is serious." Mira said.

"Sorry." I said, trying to hold back more laughter.

"Now, these are what we're going to be wearing." Mira pulled out some bloody T-shirts and handed them to Lisanna and I.

"This has to be your most elaborate prank yet." Lisanna said as she pulled her T-shirt over her head.

"I know." Mira said proudly. Once we were all in our costumes Mira pulled one more thing out of her bag.

"Ketchup? Seriously?" Lisanna asked.

"Well, I ran out of fake blood covering the T-shirts." Mira said sadly.

"I'm sure it'll be fine." I said.

"Okay, you're up first then." Mira grinned. Oh god. She flicked open the bottle and squirted Ketchup all down my arms and on my face. I squealed a little at the shock but soon began to laugh at how ridiculous this all was. After a short while the three of us really did look like we had been in a bear attack and Erza really did look like a bear. Maybe this prank would work.

"Alright, girls. Lets do this." Mira said.

x :) x

* * *

 **First things first, I'm sorry this has taken so long to update! There is no excuse and I will be updating this story regularly from now on! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. This was a fun little chapter and I hope you guys enjoyed it. How is the prank going to go? We'll find out in the next chapter so keep an eye out :) Also I'm still torn between Gralu and Nalu which is why nothing has happened with either of them yet.**


	8. Letting Go

Mira snook behind the boys tents, ready to play her grizzly bear sounds from the app on her phone, whilst Lisanna and I took our positions in the bushes near our camp.

"Mira really goes all out for pranks, doesn't she." I said as Lisanna and I waited for our queue.

"Yeah. She was so mad that the guys managed to prank us first last year that she wasn't taking any chances this year." Lisanna whispered in reply. I wondered if the boys had been planning to prank us this year too. If they weren't, we were really asking for it now. I was beginning to regret agreeing to this whole thing, but it was soon too late to back out. The aggressive growl of a bear began to fill the camp.

"I hope there's no real bears around." I said nervously but Lisanna didn't hear me. She looked so focused, ready to pounce as soon we got the go ahead. She had been the most reluctant to pull this prank but ,now here she was, raring to go. Another growl echoed through the camp and this time it was followed by the sound of rustling sleeping bags.

"Looks like the boys hear it." Lisanna said. We were beginning to hear the boys voices coming from their tents. Then we got our queue from Mira. One more growl rumbled through the woods and with that Lisanna was off. It was like she turned in to an award winning actress stumbling through the trees, crying as she went. I was impressed. Then I remembered I was meant to be doing the same thing.

"Here we go." I sighed before shaking myself in to character and stumbling after Lisanna. She was holding her body like she really was in pain, acting class had really paid off for her. I heard the zip of the boys tent followed by the sound of them arguing. From what I could hear, they were arguing about who would go and check on the growling. I tried to hold back a giggle as Lisanna and I finally made it back to the camp. Lisanna fell to the ground immediately.

"Help!" She yelled. I was beginning to feel a little flustered and I didn't really know what to do with myself. Natsu's head popped out of his tent as he began to scan the camp with sleepy eyes. Then he spotted us. His eyes were now wide open and he was leaping out of the tent and running towards Lisanna.

"What the hell happened?" He asked in a panic as he knelt by Lisanna's side.

"There's a bear." I coughed, trying my best to act hurt.

"What?" Gray exclaimed as he climbed out of the tent. He saw the blood I was covered in and ran to my aid. I fell in to his arms as he approached me and let him hold me up. Maybe acting class had paid off for me too.

"We need to get you guys out of here." Natsu said as he lifted Lisanna in his arms. She was acting completely unconscious now.

"Wait, where's Mira?" Laxus asked angrily as he burst out of their tent. I was racking my brains, trying to come up with an answer, when Mira suddenly ran through the camp.

"It's coming!" She screamed as she sprinted straight past us all. Wow, her and Lisanna were really committing to this whole thing. We all turned and there she was. Erza emerged through the trees, fully dressed in her bear costume, and began stomping towards us. I must admit it was pretty frightening, even if deep down I knew it wasn't real.

"Run!" Natsu yelled and turned to follow Mira in to the woods Carrying Lisanna with him. Laxus sprinted after his girl friend too. Before I could even take a step, Gray scooped me in to his arms and held me tight to his chest as he began running after the others. It shocked me, that last thing I expected was for him to lift me like that. My heart began to beat harder and faster than normal. It was strange, I mean, this was all beginning to feel so real what with the boys panicking and carrying us like that. Looking over Gray's shoulder, I could see Erza the bear was close on our tail and it was beginning to stress me out. I had no idea what was going to happen next, we hadn't discussed the prank going this far. I thought we would simply run around the camp a couple times and then burst in to laughter, not escape through the woods like mad men. My heart thumped against my chest as if it was desperate to get out and it was impossible to catch my breath.

"Its not real." I whispered, not quite knowing how to tell Gray the truth. Out the corner of my eye I saw Erza the bear chase after Natsu and Lisanna as they ran in the complete opposite direction to Gray and I. This was the moment that I should burst out in to laughter and announce to Gray that it was all a big prank. But I couldn't. Being held by him was the only thing keeping me calm. His warmth and the strength of his arms wrapped around my body made me feel safe and comforted. I closed my eyes and rested my head against his chest as he continued to run with me in his arms. His breathing was sharp and fast, he was genuinely scared and I felt terrible.

"Hey, Lucy. You okay? You need to stay awake." He said in a panic.

"Gray, stop." I said.

"What?"

"Stop running." I said.

"Lucy, there's a freaking bear chasing us." He said.

"There's not." I replied. He began to slow down then.

"What's going on?" He asked. The gig was up, time to come clean.

"It's just a prank." I said quietly.

"What?" Gray said angrily. He immediately stopped running and dropped me to my feet. I wasn't expecting him to drop me like that and I had to steady myself so I didn't fall down. "This was not funny, Lucy. Look at you, you look like you're bleeding to death." He said and gestured to all the fake blood and ketchup I was covered in.

"I know. I see that now." I said quietly and hung my head in embarrassment. On sudden reflection, I realised that the prank may have gone a little too far- especially with Lisanna practically acting like she was dead. I wondered how Natsu and Laxus were taking the news, I couldn't imagine them taking it much better than Gray was.

"I take it that was Erza in the bear costume." Gray said. I nodded. He sighed and turned around in a huff.

"Gray, wait." I suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm. What was I doing?

"I just need some time to calm down from all this." He said and pulled his arm out of my grip.

"I said wait!" I raised my voice as he began to storm away from me. He stopped dead in his tracks but didn't turn around.

"Fine, you can follow me back to camp." He said dryly.

"That's not it." I shook my head.

"Then what?" He asked.

"Turn around." I said. This time I didn't have to ask twice. Gray turned around and looked down at me with an angry expression slapped across his face. I took a step towards him, grabbed his cheeks in my hands and pulled his face close to mine. It was like I had no control over myself, my body was completely acting out of impulse. I shut my eyes and pressed my lips against his. I, Lucy Heartfelia, was kissing Gray Fullbuster and it was amazing. He wrapped an around my waist, slightly lifting me off the ground, and began kissing me back. My whole body felt like Jelly, like if Gray didn't have his arm around me I would just melt to the floor. I had no idea what this all meant, but in that moment I didn't even care. Until he stopped and his arm fell from my waist. The second his lips left mine I felt strange, sad almost. I looked up at his face and tried to gather how he was feeling, but he was so hard to read. His face was a complete blank. I didn't know if I should say something or if he was going to say something, it was a little awkward. In the end the silence betweens us was broken by Natsu storming through the trees.

"Can you believe this?" Natsu asked as he approached us. I tried to look normal and hoped that Natsu wouldn't pick up on the fact that Gray and I had just been kissing.

"I know, man." Gray sighed.

"I'm covered in ketchup!" Natsu said in annoyance.

"Wait, that's what your mad about?" Gray asked. I laughed a little. Trust Natsu to only care about that. Lisanna appeared then and grabbed Natsu's arm.

"Natsu, I said I'm sorry." She pleaded.

"What ever, you can pay for the dry cleaning." Natsu huffed.

"Uh, Natsu, it's just a pyjama top. I don't think it really needs to be dry cleaned." Lisanna smirked. Gray rolled his eyes at the whole situation and began marching back to camp. I decided to give him some space and walked back to the camp with Natsu and Lisanna whilst they argued about Natsu's pyjamas. When you think about it, the prank sort of went really well. I mean, we definitely had the fooled. They just weren't taking it very well, which I could understand.

When we got back to the camp Mira and Erza were sat quietly on the ground with Laxus stood looming over them. Erza had now removed the head from her costume, which looked pretty ridiculous. I would have laughed if it hadn't of been for all the tension you could feel in the camp.

"You two." Laxus said as Lisanna and I entered the camp with Gray and Natsu. Lisanna and I looked at eachother, both of us feeling pretty afraid. "Sit down." Laxus demanded and pointed to the ground next to Erza and Mira. Lisanna and I hurried over and took our seats on the floor. "Now, can one of you please tell me what the hell you were thinking?" Laxus asked us angrily. Gray and Natsu stood at his side and folded their arms like angry parents telling off their children.

"It was Mira's idea." Lisanna admitted. Mira looked up in shock.

"Lisanna, what the hell?" Mira yelled.

"Well, it was." Lisanna said. The two of them began to squabble across Erza and I, which was pretty uncomfortable.

"Enough!" Laxus yelled and the two of them instantly fell silent.

"It doesn't matter whose idea it was, you guys went way too far." Gray said. It hurt to hear the anger in his voice. We were only trying to have some fun, but they were right. I'd probably be angry too if they had pulled this prank on us.

"Yeah. I mean, I thought Lisanna was dead." Natsu said.

"He cried." Lisanna said to Mira.

"He did?" Mira asked with a wide smile.

"I did not!" Natsu yelled with embarrassment. I can't believe he cried, now I really did feel terrible.

"Look, guys, we're really sorry. You're right, we did go too far. It was never our intention to upset you like this. We just got carried away." I said. All three guys shook their heads with a heavy sigh.

"We'll forgive you. Just don't ever pull any shit like that again." Laxus said. "Got it?"

"Got it." The four of us girls replied in unison.

"Now wash that crap off. There's no way you're getting in back in my tent stinking like ketchup." Laxus said. You could feel the tension lifting away.

"Oh, _Laxy_!" Mira cheered as she jumped in to Laxus's arms. At that moment Loke's sleepy little head popped out of his tent.

"What going on? Whys everyone up?" He asked in a husky voice. We all just laughed.

* * *

Lisanna, Mira and I waded in to the cold water of the lake, scrubbing our skin as we went. The boys had gone back to their tents and so had Erza, since she wasn't covered in any fake blood. We had no idea what the time was and it was so surreal floating in the water in the middle of the night.

"I think that went quite well." Mira said.

"Are you serious?" Lisanna asked.

"Well, didn't you enjoy being carried around by Natsu like that?" Mira teased.

"No, don't be stupid." Lisanna said defensively.

"Guys, I feel bad." I said.

"What for?" Mira asked.

"We went a little crazy tonight." I said quietly. "I mean, did Natsu really cry?"

"Yeah, he did." Lisanna said, but this time she seemed to be sorry about it.

"Hey, come on, girls. They forgave us." Mira smiled.

"I hope that's true." I said. I wanted to tell them about my kiss with Gray but a part of me worried that it would just make the rest of the weekend awkward.

"The boys were surprisingly heroic." Lisanna said.

"Yeah, I was surprised to see Gray whisk you off your feet like that." Mira said to me. I could feel my cheeks turning pink.

"Did something happen?" Lisanna asked, noticing my sudden blush.

"Um, sort of." I said.

"Oh my god, tell us!" Mira exclaimed. I fidgeted in the water, debating with myself on whether to tell them or not.

"Okay, fine." I sighed. "I kissed Gray." I tried not too say it too loudly in case the boys could hear.

"You what!" Mira yelled.

" _Ssh_!" I tried to hush her but she seemed so excited.

"What happened?" Lisanna asked.

"I don't know. I just... I just kissed him out of the blue."

"Did he kiss you back?" Mira asked. I nodded with a smile. I was nervous to tell them but, it felt nice to openly talk and giggle about it. They were so excited for me that it made me feel a little better about the whole situation.

"Just please don't mention it." I begged.

"Don't worry, our lips are sealed." Mira promised.

We finally went back to our tents and I couldn't wait to get some sleep. The whole day had been exhausting and the second I slid in to my sleeping bag, I was fast asleep. It's strange but, I dreamt of Helen that night. I dreamt that I had gone to Milan with her and that the two of us were sun bathing by the side of the pool, drinking cocktails and gossiping about men. It was kind of nice. When I woke up the next morning, I was alone in the tent and could hear the others outside.

"Guess I'm the last one up." I said to myself as I stretched myself awake. I climbed out of the tent and squinted, shielding my eyes from the sun.

"Look who finally decided to join us." Loke said as I sleepily wondered over to the free chair next to him and Natsu. I noticed that everyone was already dressed but I was too tired too care that I was still in my pyjamas. Erza was cooking a breakfast over the fire and the delicious smell of bacon and eggs filled the air. Mira was laid out on a towel in her bikini and Lisanna was sat with her feet dipped in the lake. Laxus was clearing up some of the empty cans and bottles we had left laying around last night, but I couldn't see Gray anywhere.

"Where's Gray?" I asked.

"He went for a walk." Natsu said. _Oh no, is he avoiding me?_ I thought. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Either way, I tried to forget about it and focus on how good Erza's breakfast looked.

After breakfast, I was in my tent getting dressed when I suddenly heard Levy's voice. A smile spread across my face and I jumped outside to see if it really was her- and it was. Levy, followed by Gajeel, entered the camp through trees and every one jumped up to welcome them. I stayed near tent, keeping my distance since I didn't know how Levy would react to me being there.

"Levy, you made it!" Mira cheered as she jumped up from her towel.

"Yeah. Sorry, Mira. Gajeel's car broke down last night and we couldn't get it working until this morning." Levy explained.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're here now." Mira smiled.

Levy looked over to me and gave me a weak smile. I returned the favour but I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. Normally Levy and I would greet eachother with a run up in to a hug but now it was like our years of friendship had been undone and we had gone right back to being strangers.

The boys got started on putting up Levy and Gajeel's tent while the girls sunbathed and listened to music. I would check my phone frequently to see if Helen had tried to ring me or even text me, but nothing. I wondered if I should ring her but always decided against it. It's hard to explain but, even though I was surrounded by new friends, I felt so isolated. I had fallen out with Levy so she was avoiding me, I had kissed Gray and now he was avoiding me, Mira and Lisanna were great but I wasn't sure if I truly fit in with them yet and then there was Helen. My only family and she didn't even care where I was as long as I wasn't in the way of her first class life style. Laying in the hot sun with nothing really to do gave me time to deeply think about it all. Things were beginning to pile up in my head and I couldn't help but feel a little down. Maybe I was just being stupid, but once thoughts like that start rolling in it's hard to stop them from drowning you. I couldn't take laying there any longer, so I threw on some shorts and a T-shirt, grabbed my rucksack and headed in to the trees. Hopefully a long walk would clear my head. No one had noticed me go, which I didn't mind, so I put my headphones in and wondered through the woods. The further I walked, the darker it became. Clouds were spreading across the blue and the sun was beginning to disappear. It was a good thing I brought my rucksack with me, I had a raincoat folded away in there along with some other supplies.

After a while I could see the trees ahead were beginning to clear and a strong wind was blowing through the woods. I wasn't ready to go back to camp yet so I marched forwards and came out of the trees to find myself stood on a cliff top.

"Oh my god." I breathed as I looked down at the vast world below. There was nothing but trees and water for miles. I fumbled around in my pocket to pull out my phone and take a picture as the wind whirled around me.

"What an amazing view." Someone said behind me. I jumped a little and turned around to find Levy stood behind me.

"Levy? What are you doing here?" I asked in surprise.

"I've been following you this whole time but, I didn't know how to talk to you." She said. That made me a little sad to hear.

"Well, what do you want?" I asked. I didn't mean for it sound rude but I could tell Levy took it that way.

"I just... I wanted to say sorry, Lu." She blurted it out like she was desperate to say it. I just stared for a second, not knowing how to respond. Part of me wanted to forgive her and make everything okay but then there was this part of me that was still hurt by what she had said. "I miss you." She added and it was like that was all I needed to hear. She missed me. She didn't want to throw our friendship away and she had been upset just like me! I opened my mouth to respond when an almighty gust of wind wrapped itself around me and threw me in to the air. I'd never felt a gale so strong. I screamed as I hit the ground and began rolling towards the edge, grabbing at anything I could to try and save myself. But it was no use, I felt the ground beneath me disappear as I tumbled over the edge.

"Lucy!" Levy cried and threw herself forwards, grabbing hold of my wrist. There we were, the two of us dangling from the cliff with tears streaming down our cheeks. Levy had managed to cling to the edge with just one arm, whilst I clung to her.

"Oh my god. Oh my god!" I cried as I tried not to look down, although looking up wasn't a good idea either. All I could see was Levy struggling to hold on. There was such determination on her face but it just wasn't enough. We were going to fall, there was no doubt about it. I started thinking about, well, everything. Images of mine and Levy's life flooded my brain. Levy was a straight A student with dreams and a bright future and a loving family. Me on the other hand, well I was lost in this world. I had no real family, no dreams. In short, I had nothing to lose. It wasn't fair for me to pull Levy to her death when she had so much to live for.

"Levy, I forgive you." I said quickly.

"Lucy, now isn't the time." Levy yelled as holding the weight of the both of us began to cause her great pain.

"It's okay. I'm gonna' let go." I said.

"Wait, what?" Levy looked down at me then. Her eyes were so wide with fear but I felt strangely calm.

"If I hold on, we'll both fall. You know that. But if I let go, you'll be able to pull yourself up." I explained.

"Lucy, no! Don't you dare!" Levy cried. But it didn't matter what she said, I had made up my mind. I gave her one last smile before closing my eyes and letting go.

 _ **x**_

* * *

 **Next chapter coming soon x**

 **This chapter was a little darker than the others but I hope you guys still enjoyed it :)**


	9. Time To Go

It's hard to describe how I felt. My body was almost numb, but maybe that was just from the freezing wind bellowing around us. You'd think hundreds of things would be whizzing through my mind. You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes, well, that didn't happen. I just let go and that was that. It's hard to prepare yourself for something that no one knows anything about, so I just did my best not to think at all. But as I let go of Levy and she began to scream, I felt a strange pull. I don't mean the kind of pull you feel in your heart or your chest, I mean something was actually pulling me upwards. I opened my eyes in shock and found myself staring down at my legs as they hung limply in the air. I wasn't falling, just hanging there. The view below was blurry now, I couldn't properly see anything past my feet. Levy's screaming became muffled too as I began to enter a dazed like state. For a while I wondered if this was just what death was like, but I wasn't dying. I eventually looked up and saw Natsu's face staring down at me with more intensity than I had ever seen. I noticed then that he had grabbed the strap of my rucksack and that he was doing his best to pull me back over the edge. I had completely forgotten that I had even been wearing my rucksack, it's funny how something as simple as that could save my life. Just as I had thought, Levy managed to pull herself up once I had let go and together her and Natsu pulled me back to safety. I laid in a bundle on the floor, staring up at the gloomy sky. Natsu and Levy were trying to talk to me but nothing was going in. I couldn't focus on a word they were saying, no matter how hard I tried. That's when the reality of the situation hit me. I had just given up my life like it was nothing. If it hadn't of been for Natsu, I would be a lifeless pile of broken bones. I couldn't believe it. More than that, I couldn't accept it. What was wrong with me? How could I do that to myself? My heart was beating so hard and so fast it was like it was attacking my ribcage. It hurt. My chest really hurt. I clutched at my shirt as the pain overwhelmed me, making it difficult to breath. Just like the night before, I had no control over my body. It was acting completely on it's own. I shot up and began running through the trees, slinking out of my rucksack as I went.

"I don't want to die!" I said to myself over and over again as I ran in to the woods. I began to sob loudly as tears steamed down my cheeks. I didn't know what to do with myself, I couldn't go back to camp like this. I just kept running- until I felt his hand around my wrist. He stopped me dead in my tracks and I suddenly felt like I could no longer move.

"Lucy." He said calmly but I on the other hand, I was hysterical, crying out like it was all that I could do. Keeping his hand on my wrist, he made his way around to my front and stared down at me with a thoughtful expression. His eyes scanned my face as if he was taking in every detail of my skin. "Lucy, I don't know if you can hear me." He began in a soft voice. "But you're having another panic attack. I need you to sit with me, okay?" He moved his hands in to mine and slowly, the two of us sank to the floor. "Good. Running won't help." He said. I stared at him, struggling to see through the tears that continued to stream from my eyes. This was all too much. Why did he always have to see me like this?

"I don't want to die." I whispered through short, sharp breaths. Natsu's eyes widened slightly, just for a second though. Then he went back to being calm and thoughtful, because he knew that's how I needed him to be.

"I know." He said. "Of course you don't." He began stroking my hair like he had done once before. It almost surprised me, but soon I didn't want him to stop. I could feel my energy draining more and more each time he ran his hand through my hair. After a short while the last of my strength evaporated and I fell forwards in to Natsu's chest. He was so warm, I wanted him to wrap his arms around me. Then he did. One hand cupped my head gently and the other circled my back, soothing me in a way I'd never felt before. How was he doing this? My breath was coming back to me and my heart was slowing down. Could anyone else calm me the way Natsu always seemed to be able to?

"I don't... want... to-" I began to whisper, but I couldn't even finish my sentence. My voice trailed off as I fell asleep in Natsu's embrace.

* * *

I woke up back in the tent. It was dimly lit and I wondered what the time was and how I had ended up there. I felt so disorientated and light headed. There was no one else with me and I couldn't hear any voices outside. Fighting against my dizziness, I flung the blankets I had been sleeping under to one side and began unzipping the tent. I saw the sky first. It was a dark shade of orange as the sun set for the day. Then I saw Natsu. He was sat on the ground outside our tent. His legs were outstretched towards the water and he was leaning back on his hands. My stomach flipped a little when I saw him, but in a good way- In a _I'm glad he's here_ sort of way _._ Then I sadly remembered everything that had happened and I was more than a little embarrassed. Taking a deep breath, I crawled out of the tent and sat slightly behind him. There was no one else here, it was just the two of us.

"Um, Natsu." I said quietly. I didn't know what to say, I just wanted to be with him. He probably thought I was a freak now. I mean, who wouldn't? I practically threw myself off a cliff and then cried about it. I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted nothing to do with me.

"Hey, you're awake." He smiled, turning his head in my direction. "Come here." He gestured to the empty space beside him. I crawled a little further forwards so we were now sat side by side. "Everyone's left to find somewhere to watch the sunset from." He said.

"Didn't you want to go?" I asked quietly.

"I wanted to stay with you, make sure you're okay." He said. A painful lump formed in my throat and my eyes began to well up at how kind he was.

"I'm so sorry." I cried softly.

"Don't cry." He said and raised a hand to wipe my tears away. It just made me cry more. I wasn't used to this kind of compassion from someone, it meant so much to me. I rested my head on his shoulder and cried lightly as we watched the sky darken together. It turns out he had carried me back to the camp on his back with Levy beside him carrying my rucksack. The two of them had agreed not to tell the others what had really happened and simply tell them I had hit my head on a tree branch and needed a nap. It was a flimsy excuse, but everyone seemed to buy it. When I asked Natsu how he had managed to save me in time, he told me he had been collecting more firewood around that area when he heard Levy screaming and came running to help us.

When everyone returned to camp I had managed to pull myself together. None of them knew what had happened with Levy and I and I wanted to keep it that way. Mira wanted to spend the last night partying so I put on a brave face and acted like nothing was wrong. Mira dished out the drinks, Lisanna fished out her portable speakers and plugged her phone in to them and the party began. It was hard for me to act like I was okay, but the alcohol helped. In fact it help a lot. After several drinks, I wasn't thinking about anything that had been bothering me before, I was just able to enjoy the last night without a care. It even gave me the confidence to talk to Gray. We didn't discuss our kiss or even mention it, we just talked like things were back to normal. I don't know what time we all got to bed that night, I honestly can't remember. All I know is that the next morning, I felt like I was dying. I clutched my head as I sat up in our tent and turned to my right to find Lisanna doing the exact same thing.

"How much did we drink last night?" Lisanna groaned.

"I lost count after the first three bottles of wine." Erza smirked. "Then you moved on to beer." She was looking pretty proud of herself, since she hadn't had a drop of alcohol.

"Oh god." I grumbled.

"Girls, come on! We're waiting on you." Laxus yelled from outside the tent. Lisanna and I winced as the volume of his voice worsened the effects of our hangovers. Erza hopped out of the tent and skipped away to help tidy up the camp, while Lisanna and I stumbled out looking like zombies rising from the grave.

"Looks like Mira isn't the only one." Laxus smirked as Lisanna and I shielded our eyes from the sun. I looked over to see Mira curled up in a camping chair, bundled up in Laxus's hoody with a pair of sunglasses hiding her face. I suddenly wished I had sunglasses on too.

"What's wrong girls? Feeling a little hungover?" Loke asked as he threw his arms around Lisanna and I.

"Urgh." Lisanna scoffed before shaking Loke off to go join her sister.

"How about you, Lucy? Want some water?" He asked, holding out a cold looking bottle of water.

"Oh my god, yes!" I said with desperation.

"Here you go." He smiled and tossed me the bottle.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed before gulping down the whole thing.

"Okay guys, lets get packed up!" Laxus said.

Mira, Lisanna and I huddled together on the floor while the others packed up the camp. We watched as one by one the tents were taken down and our rubbish was bagged up and ready to be thrown out. Our chairs were folded way and what was left of the food and drink was packed back in the coolers. The boys and Erza did a great job of clearing everything up and after a quick goodbye to the lake, we were heading back to the cars. Mira had ended up falling asleep so Laxus laid her across the back seats of his car which left room for only one more person. It obviously made sense that Lisanna go back with them but that did leave me wondering whose car I should go home in. I turned to Levy but Erza had already asked if she could go in Gajeel's car with them and with all of their bags, there was no room for me in there either.

"Looks like your with us." Loke winked as he leant against his car. I sighed heavily. I felt so unwell, I just wanted to sleep. The boys would probably be all loud and annoying and play awful music that would just make my head hurt worse.

"I'll walk." I said dryly.

"Hey, wait, don't be like that!" Loke cried as I began walking away from him and his creepy winking.

"Come on, Lucy. Get in." Gray said as he held open the door for me.

"Do I have to?" I moaned.

"Yes, get in." He said as he waited patiently for me to do as he had asked.

"Fine." I hung my head and climbed in the back of Loke's car. Gray shut the door and began walking round the other side of the car.

"Shot gun!" Natsu said as he appeared out of no where and rushed past Gray to sit in the front.

"What ever, man. I don't even care." Gray said as he got in got in the back next to me. After loading the last of the bags in to the trunk of the car, Loke hopped in too.

"Ready to hit the road?" Loke asked us with a grin.

"Just please try to be quiet." I groaned.

"Open your window, that'll help." Gray said. He was right. I opened my window and welcomed the fresh air. Loke started up the car and we were soon on our way home.

We had been on the road for about fifteen minutes when we suddenly hit traffic.

"Whoa, what!" I gasped as I looked around at the ocean of traffic surrounding us.

"Where the hell did all this traffic come from?" Natsu asked.

"It goes on for miles." Gray pointed out and it really did. We just couldn't see an end to it.

"Get comfortable guys. We're gonna' be here a while." Loke sighed.

"I just want to go to bed." I cried. The thought of sitting in traffic for hours made me want to scream.

"So lay down and take a nap." Loke said.

"I can't do that." I said. "Plus, there's no room back here to do that."

"Sure there is. I'm sure Gray wouldn't mind."

"Huh?" Gray had been staring out the window at the traffic as if in a daze, I'm sure he probably didn't even know what we were talking about.

"You wouldn't mind Lucy using your lap as a pillow right? The girl's tired." Loke said. I could feel myself blushing and I hated Loke for it.

"Oh, um..." Gray said awkwardly, it looked like he was blushing too.

"I'm fine. I can wait 'till we get back." I said, trying my best to sound cool.

"You sure about that, Lucy?" Loke turned in his seat to flash me a grin. "You're eyes aren't feeling all heavy? You're head isn't thumping?" He asked with an evil smirk. "Don't you just want to sleep it all away?"

"Come on, man. Leave her alone and keep your eyes on the road." Gray said. Loke shrugged and turned back round again. He was right though. My eyes were heavy and my head was thumping. I'd love nothing more than to lie down and sleep it off, but I couldn't. I had to fight it.

After another thirty minutes or so we had moved about half a mile. We were getting no where fast and it was driving me insane. It was so frustrating. My body and I were fighting eachother like crazy. Every minute or so my head would droop and my eyes would begin to close but I had to keep myself awake. I rested my head against the back of Loke's chair and took some deep breaths, trying to keep the nausea away that was beginning to creep up on me.

"Lucy, you okay?" Natsu asked. "You're not gonna' throw up are you?"

"No, I've just never been so tired in my life." I said quietly. I didn't even have the energy to speak normally.

"Hey." Gray said as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"Lay down." He said.

"What? I can't. It's fine, don't worry." I mumbled.

"Just do it." Gray said as he unclipped my seatbelt. It took all my energy but I managed to look up at him. He nodded his head, gesturing for me to lay in his lap. He was so demanding all the time, but I was in no condition to argue.

"Okay." I nodded through a yawn. I was past the point of fighting it. If I didn't sleep soon I would lose my mind. I shuffled in my seat and then finally laid down, placing my head in Gray's lap. It was soft and warm and so comfortable. Gray tucked my hair behind my ear as I began to drift in and out of conciousness. Before long I felt the warmth of his hand on my back as he began gently rubbing it up and down, sending me off to sleep at last.

 _x :) x_

* * *

 **AN**

 **Hope you guys liked this chapter. What do you guys think of this story so far? I hope you're not getting bored it. If you have any suggestions or constructive criticism I'd love to know so I can make this story as enjoyable as I can for you guys! :)**


	10. Bad Dream?

I had this dream, although it was more like a nightmare. I was walking and walking, trying to find something but I didn't know what. There was just this sense of desperation hanging in the darkness around me. With each step I took a strong wind would pick up around me. I started to run, faster and faster, wanting to find some kind of light. But there just wasn't any. Then I heard Levy call my name. I turned around to find her and Gajeel, Natsu and Gray, Lisanna and Mira, Loke and even Helen stood in the darkness with me. They began calling me over, smiling and waving their arms. But as I ran forwards something grabbed a hold of my waist, pulling me back. "Help!" I would scream but they didn't move, they just watched on with such indifference. The invisible force that had wrapped itself around me tossed me in to the air and I was falling. I stared up at my friends as I fell further in to the darkness but they just stared back, blank and emotionless. After what felt like an eternity of falling and screaming, I finally hit the ground.

"No!" I yelled as I jerked awake.

"Whoa, hey. What's wrong, Lucy?" Gray asked. I remembered then that my head was laid in his lap. His hand was still rested on my back and he was looking down at me with a concerned expression. I noticed that I was clutching tightly at his jeans, probably because of the dream I had had.

"Bad dream?" Loke asked.

"Um, yeah. Sort of." I said as I sat myself up. I rubbed my eyes, still feeling pretty sleepy and stuck my head out the window to breath in some fresh air.

"Well, luckily for you we're just pulling in to your road." Loke said. I hadn't even recognised where we were, that dream really shook me up.

"Already?" I asked.

"You were asleep for about two hours." Gray said.

"I was? I'm sorry." I blushed. Poor Gray. He had to sit with my head in his lap for the whole drive home, I hoped I hadn't given him pins and needles or something like that.

"It's fine, don't worry about it." He smiled.

Loke pulled in to my drive way and turned off the engine. We all sat there for a minute just looking around at eachother as if waiting for someone to say something, it was a little awkward.

"Well, thanks for the drive home." I said. "I had a really good weekend." I smiled, but that wasn't strictly true. It had certainly been an interesting weekend, to say the least. I began to open my car door, when all three boys did the same. Loke, Natsu and Gray hopped out the car and made their way round to the trunk.

"It's okay, I've got your bag." Loke said as he opened the trunk of his car.

"Thanks." I said and began walking up the steps of my porch. Again, being followed by the boys. I opened my front door and swung it open before turning around to the boys, who were lingering on the bottom step, to say a final goodbye for the weekend. They were all looking at me expectantly and I wondered what they wanted. "Do you guys want to come in or something?" I asked, not necessarily inviting them. Their faces lit up immediately.

"Well, since you asked." Loke grinned, moving past me and entering my house, my bag slung over his shoulder.

"I wouldn't mind." Natsu smirked as he sauntered past me too. I sighed, this was going to be a long afternoon.

"Gray, you wanna' come in?" I asked as Gray remained at the bottom of the steps, staring in to my house.

"I guess I have to, since Loke's my ride." He said.

"Gee, sure. Come on in." I said sarcastically as I closed the door behind us.

Loke dropped my bag to the floor and flung himself on my sofa. Natsu wondered off in to the kitchen and Gray relaxed in one of the arm chairs.

"Hey, Lucy. Where's all of your food?" Natsu asked as he peered in to the empty fridge.

"I need to go shopping." I said.

"But you don't have anything for dinner." Natsu moaned.

"That's okay. I'm not hungry." I said.

"I kind of am." Loke said.

"Yeah, me too." Gray chimed in.

"Well, go home then." I said in a huff.

"Don't be like that." Loke winked.

"Lets get take out!" Natsu suggested as he wondered back in to the living room.

"Okay, sure." I said as I noticed the pile of cash that Helen had left for me just like she always does. There was more there than there normally was, probably because she was going to be gone for a lot longer this time. The guys ordered a feast. They couldn't agree on what to get so they ended up ordering something different for each of them. There was pizza, Chinese, Indian and all kinds of fizzy drinks. I watched as they scoffed it all down like it was the last meal they would ever have. It made me laugh a little. They would offer me this and that but I honestly wasn't hungry in the slightest. After a while, Loke discovered my movie and collection and the four of us laid about in my living room watching movies in to the late hours of the evening. I must admit, it was fun. I never really thought of myself as the kind of girl that could hangout with the guys like this, but I fit in with them so well. I felt surprisingly comfortable around them. The last movie finished at around nine O'clock and we decided to call it a night, we did have school the next day after all.

"Are you gonna' be home alone?" Natsu asked as we stood on my front porch.

"Um, yeah. My aunty's away at the moment." I said.

"Do you need anything?" Gray asked.

"Nope, I'm good. Thanks." I smiled.

"Okay, well, we better get going then." Loke said as he made his way back to his car.

"See you guys later." I said as I watched the three of them walk down my driveway. I didn't want to watch them leave, so I turned around and went back inside. The house felt so empty now. Just moments ago it had been full of fun and laughter, but once again I was on my own. I sighed heavily and flopped down on my sofa when I heard a knock at the door. Maybe one of the boys had forgotten something.

"Hey!" Natsu grinned as I opened the door. I noticed he had his camping bag in his hand.

"Uh, hey." I said. I peered around and saw that Loke's car was gone.

"I didn't feel right leaving you on your own." He said as he moved passed me and made his way back in to my house without even asking me first.

"Wait, what?" I asked, a little confuse.

"I'm staying the night." He smiled.

"But-"

"No buts." He said. "Now, where shall I sleep?" He asked as he began making his way up the stairs. Something told me I wasn't getting rid of him so I just went along with it and showed him to the spare room. Maybe it would be nice having him here. I was a little sad when they left.

"I'm still pretty tired, so I'm gonna' go to bed." I said through a sleepy yawn. Natsu was in the spare room changing in to his pyjamas and I was talking to him through the closed door.

"Okay, want me to sit you for a bit?" He asked as he opened the door.

"Sit with me?" I asked.

"Yeah, till you fall asleep. I could read you a book or something." He smiled. I gasped suddenly as the realisation set in. "What? What's wrong?" He asked.

"You're baby sitting me!" I said with a pointed finger.

"What are you talking about, Lucy?" He asked.

"You come back when you find out I'm alone; You demand to stay the night; And you want to read me a freaking bed time story!" I said accusingly. You might be asking yourself why I was getting so worked up about it. Well, honestly I'm not too sure myself. I just felt a little stupid, I guess. I didn't need to be looked after, I didn't want him to think of me in that way. But it was too late. The second he saw me hanging off that cliff, I became this fragile girl he couldn't trust to be on her own.

"Don't be stupid, Lucy. I just wanted to sit you for a while." He said, completely calm and collected- Unlike me.

"But, why are you here?" I asked quietly. He looked at me thoughtfully, like he had done in the woods. He was really pondering what to say.

"Okay. I was worried about you. I didn't think you should be alone after everything what happened this weekend." He explained.

"I'm fine." I said shyly and hugged my arms to my chest.

"I don't want you to feel babysat. I just want to be here for you. You know, if you need anything." He said. I felt bad for getting angry at him now. He was just trying to be nice but I wasn't used to people caring about me like this. I didn't know how to handle it. I'd have to learn to accept it eventually.

"I'm sorry." I said with a smile.

"Don't worry about it."

I turned around and walked in to my room, leaving the door open behind me. I turned off the main light, leaving just my fairy lights on hanging from the wall above my bed. I climbed under my covers and stared at the doorway, waiting. After a minute or so, he appeared. At first he just stood there, leaning against the door frame. But then he wondered further in. I felt that flip in my stomach again. My cheeks must have been turning rosy too.

"Can I sit?" He asked.

"Yes." I shuffled along in my bed and made room for him to sit beside on top of the covers. We sat in a silence for a little while, but it wasn't awkward like you'd imagine. "I just remembered." I said.

"What's that?" He asked. The two of us were speaking quietly and calmly.

"Thank you for saving me." I said.

"You're welcome." He smiled down at me. I smiled back and rested my head on his shoulder.

"I am glad you're here." I said, shutting my eyes.

"Yeah, me too."

"Can you tell me something?" I asked sleepily.

"Tell you what?" He asked.

"Something about yourself." I said after another yawn. He laughed to himself a little.

"Okay, let me think. Well, I live with my grampa." He said.

"You do?"

"Yep. And our cat." He said.

"You have a cat?" I asked. I was feeling more and more sleepy but I wanted to keep talking until I couldn't stay awake any longer.

"Yeah, his name's Happy."

"That's a cute name." I mumbled with a sleepy smile. He laughed again.

"Time for bed, I think." He said.

"No, no." I protested. "Tell me something else."

"Uh, okay." He sighed. "I'm glad I met you."

"You are?" I yawned. I was too tired to fully take in what he was saying, I wish I had of been more awake.

"Yep."

"I'm glad too." I whispered before eventually falling asleep with my head rested on his shoulder.

x :) x

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This was a little chapter to move us on to the next phase of this story. This is where Natsu and Gray's fight for our girl Lucy really begins. I hope you guys are looking forward to the roller-coaster we're about to get on! Also, quick question: Do you guys enjoy when there is a lot of dialogue between the characters? Like the little conversation between Lucy and Natsu at the end of this chapter, or do you find that boring? Please let me know :)**


	11. Blush

Monday Morning

My morning alarm went off to wake me for school, but I was actually glad when it did. I'd had the same nightmare as before. I was falling through the darkness screaming for help and just like before, I had woken up with a thumping heart and a light head. I climbed out of bed and wondered sleepily out of my room and in to the hall. The shower was running in the bath room and I suddenly remembered that Natsu had spent the night. When had he gotten up? I tried to creep downstairs when I was stopped by Natsu calling out my name.

"Uh, Lucy. You up?" He called out as he turned off the shower.

"Yeah." I said through the door.

"Could you pass me a towel?" He asked. I blushed.

"Uh, what?" I asked shyly.

"I got in here without even thinking about a towel. Could you hurry? I'm getting cold."

"Um. Yeah. Okay." I said and pulled a towel from the linen closet. I quickly ran back to my room to check my appearance in the mirror. Using the corner of my pyjama top, I wiped away yesterday's make-up from under my eyes and then did my best to flatten my hair. I sighed.

"This is as good as it's gonna' get this early in the morning." I said to myself before returning to the bathroom door. "I've got one." I said, not knowing how he wanted this to work. Should I just leave it on the floor outside the door?

"The door's open." He said.

"Won't I see you naked?" I asked, feeling my cheeks turn pink. I heard him laugh behind the door.

"Not if you shut your eyes." He said.

"Um. Okay." I said as I reached for the door handle. I took a deep breath, shut my eyes and opened the door. A sudden gust of warmth wafted over my as the steam from Natsu's shower escaped in to the hall. "Here." I said, thrusting the towel forwards, being careful not to touch anything I shouldn't- If you know what I mean. I felt him take the towel from me but I remained standing there with my eyes shut tight- So tight in fact that I was beginning to see spirals. My stomach was full of butterflies just knowing that I was in the same room as a naked Natsu. I could smell honey in the air, he had obviously used my shampoo.

"You can open your eyes now." I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Oh, um. Yeah, okay." I opened my eyes slowly and marvelled the figure before me. He had hung the towel low around his hips, leaving little to the imagination. My cheeks were certainly burning now. I had seem him with his shirt off when we were swimming the other night, but there was something different about seeing him like this. His skin glistened in the steam and his hair was floppy and damp.

"Did you want a shower? I didn't use much hot water." He said as he ran his hands through his dripping hair. I opened my mouth but I couldn't muster any words. There was a little droplet of water sat on his chiselled collarbone. I couldn't take my eyes off it as it began to slither down his chest, lower and lower until it finally disappeared in to his towel. "Lucy?" Natsu smirked.

"Uh, can you get out? I need to get ready." I said suddenly, trying to play it cool. I just needed him out of my site before I took that towel back from him.

"Sure, I'll see you at breakfast." He sauntered past me and our arms brushed against each other's. I bit my lip and wiped away the wet that he had left on my arm before shutting the door behind me in relief.

After getting ready for school, I headed downstairs and joined Natsu in my kitchen. He was sifting through my cupboards and rummaging through my fridge. Thankfully, he was fully dressed in our school uniform by now.

"I forgot you didn't have any food." He said as I sat myself on top of one of the island counters.

"There's probably some cereal in that cupboard." I gestured with my foot.

"Cornflakes?" Natsu asked, pulling out the cereal box.

"Not for me." I said.

"Chocopops?" Natsu held up another choice of cereal.

"I'm not hungry." I said.

Natsu ate his breakfast and then we headed out the door. It was a sunny but cold morning. So cold in fact that you could see our breath in the air.

"I feel like a dragon!" Natsu exclaimed as he breathed heavily in to the cold air. I laughed.

"You look like one." I smiled. Then I heard my phone buzz. I pulled it out of my blazer pocket and saw I had a text from Levy.

 _Text Message From Levvvy :_

 _Hey, Lu! I hope you're okay._ _Wanna walk to school together?_

 _xxx_

I looked at Natsu as he continued to roar like a dragon. I laughed. As much as I wanted to see Levy, I was enjoying walking with Natsu. After all, he'd been kind enough to stay the night with me and I didn't want to just ditch him now.

 _Text Message To Levvvy :_

 _Hey, Lev. I'm good. Really sorry but can't walk today._

 _See you at the classroom xxx_

She wouldn't mind. I put my phone away and turned back to Natsu.

"It's your turn, by the way." He said.

"My turn for what?" I asked.

"To tell me something about yourself." He said. I blushed a little, remembering our sleepy chat from the night before.

"Is there anything you want to know?" I asked.

"Tell me about your aunt." He said.

"Uh, okay." I had to think for a second. "Well, we're not very close." I shrugged.

"Why not?" He asked.

"She's just not around much. She's the head of some business that consumes her whole life."

"What happened to your parents? If you don't mind me asking." He said with a small smile.

"My mum died when I was young and it was just my dad and I for a while. That was okay but he didn't really know how to look after me on his own."

"Where is he now?" Natsu asked.

"Um. He died too. I was about ten years old at the time. Helen was the only family member I had left so I moved in with her, although I spent more time at Levy's than I did at Helen's." I didn't normally open up about my past, but they way Natsu looked at me as I explained my life made me want to tell him everything. I waited for his response, hoping I hadn't made him feel awkward, when he suddenly stopped and grabbed my hand. I gasped a little at his touch but didn't dare move.

"I'm sorry." He said. "My parents aren't around anymore either."

"Natsu." I said with wide eyes. I had no idea.

"Come on." He said with a small smile. We began walking again, but his hand remained in mine. Neither of us attempted to break the connection.

"Are you going home tonight?" I asked suddenly.

"Yeah, I haven't seen Gramps since Friday. He's probably lonely." He replied. I was a little disappointed.

"Well, thanks for staying last night." I said.

"Anytime." He grinned.

After a little while longer we began to approach the school gates and I was suddenly extremely aware of his hand in mine. We probably looked like a couple. I couldn't think of a way to pull my hand away without being rude. Then I spotted Levy and she spotted me. She sprinted towards me and threw herself at me, causing me to stumble backwards and let go of Natsu's hand.

"Lu! I'm so happy to see you." She said as she tightened her arms around me. I had missed this. I relaxed and wrapped my arms around her too.

"Me too." I smiled.

"Come on, we need to talk." She ended our hug and grabbed my wrist, pulling me towards the gates.

"Um, I'm with Natsu." I said.

"It's okay, I'll see you later." He laughed as Levy dragged me away.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me?" Levy demanded as we stood in the girls toilets.

"Tell you what?" I asked.

"That you and Natsu were a thing." She said in with her hands on her hips.

"What! We're not a _thing_!" I said with a frantic wave of my hands.

"Come on, Lu. You were holding hands, I saw you."

"I hold your hand sometimes, does that make us a couple?" I asked.

"Hold on a second." Levy said. I could see the cogs in her brain turning as she put the pieces together. She gasped as the final piece fell in to place. "He must have slept at your house last night!"

"He did not." I laughed awkwardly but I wasn't convincing anyone.

"Yes, he did. He doesn't walk the same way as you and I recognised his bag from camping. He never went home last night, did he?" Levy asked.

"Ugh, okay!" I sighed. "Yes, Natsu stayed at mine last night. But _nothing_ happened."

"Do you like him?" She asked with a raised brow.

"I don't know, okay? I don't even want to think about that stuff." I said.

"Why?"

"I'm too stressed out already." I said.

"About what?" Levy asked.

"Oh, nothing." I said quickly. "Can we just drop this and get to class?"

"Is it because of what happened on the cliff top?" She asked with a sad expression.

"No."

"We should talk about that, Lucy."

"We don't need to, I'm fine." I smiled before leaving the toilets. Maybe I wasn't fine though, I was beginning to forget what fine even felt like.

* * *

When we got to class everything had seemingly gone back to normal. Levi took her usual seat next to me and I couldn't have been happier about it. Although Lisanna wasn't sat at the front like she normally was.

"Where's Lisanna?" Levy asked.

"That's just what I was thinking."

"Do you think her and Mira are still hungover?" Levy laughed. But she was probably right.

Levi had plans to meet Gajeel for lunch which she insisted to cancel so she could be with me, but I encouraged her to go. I knew that she would just spend the whole lunch pestering me about Natsu or, even worse, about what had happened on the cliff top. So I Grabbed my headphones from my locker, found a quiet spot outside and sat listening to my music. Until someone pulled one of my headphones out, that is.

"Hey." I said as I looked up to find the culprit. It was Gray. He had sat down on the ground next to me and was placing the headphone in his own ear.

"What ya' listening to?" He asked.

"The Rockets." I said as I stared him up and down. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his collar was wide open with his tie hanging loosely around his neck. He didn't look smart by any means, but he did look, well, hot. I blushed.

"Never heard of 'em." He said as he rested his head against the tree we were sat beneath.

"They're just some band I heard on the radio once." Gray was so cool, he exuded confidence. I could feel all the girls around us watching Gray with me. I guess I hadn't noticed him much before, but now I could see how popular he was- especially with the opposite sex.

"I like it." He said.

"Yeah, they're good." I said, feeling accomplished with myself. For some reason I wanted to stand up and yell 'Hey, everybody! Gray Fullbuster likes _my_ music!' But of course I didn't.

"So, I'll see you tonight." He said.

"Wait, what?" I asked, was I forgetting about some plans we had made?

"I'm taking you out." He said.

"You are?" I asked with a gulp.

"Yep." He pulled out his headphone and handed it back to me before jumping to his feet.

"Um, like... like a date?" I asked. I was so nervous to ask and I can't believe that I actually had that confidence to.

"Yep, it's a date." He grinned before turning around and disappearing in to the crowd of other students. I couldn't believe my ears. Gray was taking me out on a date!

 _x ;) x_

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Okay, I'm so sorry this chapter took so long! I'll try to work faster from now on :) Hope you guys are all good and I obviously hope you are enjoying the story so far! I also wanted to thank everyone for all your kind reviews, they honestly make my day :)**


	12. AnonyBitch

**Disclaimer: This chapter contains very sexual and mature content.**

Monday evening, I had invited Levy around to help me get ready for my date with Gray. We were sat in my room with music playing, sifting through my wardrobe for something cute to wear. I'd never been on an official date before and it was pretty safe to say that I was nervous. In the end I settled on jeans that cut off at the knee and an oversized white, knit jumper.

"Is this too casual?" I asked as I swayed back and forth in front of the mirror.

"Here, wear this." Levy removed her long, spangly necklace and placed it around my neck. "There, that's dressed it up." She smiled.

"Are you sure I can wear this?" I asked as I admired the sparkly piece of jewellery hanging from my neck.

"Of course! It ties the whole outfit together." She said.

"Thank you, Levy." I smiled.

"Now, time to do your hair." Levy grabbed my straighteners from my desk, but before she could do anything we were interrupted by a knock at the front door.

"Oh my god! That can't be him, can it?" I panicked, running to my bedroom window to see who it was.

"Well?" Levy asked.

"It's Lisanna." I said.

Levy stayed in my room while I went downstairs to speak to Lisanna.

"Hey." I said as I opened the door.

"Can I come in?" She asked. I couldn't read what kind of mood she was in, but it didn't seem to be a good one. I moved aside to let her in. "Thanks." She said. I shut the door and turned around to find her stood in the middle of my living room with her hands folded across her chest.

"Is everything alright?" I asked.

"I need to talk to you about something." She said.

"Okay..."

"Natsu and I have been sort of... on and off for a while now." She began.

"Oh, right." I said, feeling more than awkward.

"Except, since you came along Natsu and I have been completely _off_." She said. Where exactly was she going with this?

"Oh." Was all I could think to say.

"I need to know if there's something going on between the two of you." She said with an intense stare.

"Between Natsu and I?" I asked. She simply continued to stare. "No, there's nothing going on." I said.

"So, you haven't been spending nights together or anything like that?" She asked. My stomach knotted suddenly. Did she know that Natsu had spent the night here last night? No, she couldn't know that.

"Nope." I said. I don't really know why I lied- although maybe because of the scary look on Lisanna's face.

"Okay." She said suddenly with a wide smile. She dropped her arms and sauntered past me, opening my front door. I stood in the door way and watched as she hopped down my porch steps. "Oh, Lucy." She said. "One more question."

"Yeah?"

"What did Levy mean when she asked you about what happened on the cliff top?" She asked with a grin. My heart stopped. Had she been in the toilets this morning when Levy and I were talking? If she had, then she knew I was lying about Natsu spending the night. I stared at her ,wide eyed, with my jaw hanging open. She simply laughed and walked away. I shut the door and turned around to find Levy sat at the top of the stairs.

"She can be real scary sometimes." Levy said.

"Did you hear all of that?" I asked as Levy and I wondered back to my room.

"Yeah." Levy cringed.

"You know her better than I do, what do you think she's gonna' do?" I asked.

"I have no idea. All I can say for sure is, she's pissed." Levy said. She was right. Lisanna was pissed and I had only made things worse by lying to her. I sighed and flopped on my bed face down. "Try to forget about her for now and just enjoy your date with Gray."

Levy curled my hair whilst I sat in front of her asking her questions about my date. At about six O'clock my doorbell rang and I immediately jumped up and began rushing around my room trying to find some shoes. Levy chucked some sparkly pumps at me and told me to calm down.

"You look great, Lu." She smiled.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, now go have fun. I'll let myself out." Levy said. I nodded and headed downstairs to meet Gray. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and smiled as Gray looked down at me with a cheeky grin. He was wearing dark blue T-shirt under a loose grey cardigan with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows again. I noticed a braided leather bracelet was hanging around his wrist as he ran his hand through his thick head of hair.

"Ready to go?" He asked, holding up a bucket and spade.

"Where are we going?" I laughed as I stepped out and closed the door behind me.

"To a beach." He smiled.

"A beach?" I asked.

"Yep, I know a quiet little beach we can go to." He said.

"How do we get there?"

"We drive." He said as he flashed me a set of car keys.

"I didn't know you could drive." I said.

"Well, I have a provisional license." He said coolly.

"Gray." I scolded.

"What? My test is next week, I'll pass for sure." He said. We reached a shiny, red Volkswagen Beetle with a convertible roof. Gray clicked his keys and the car lights began to flash awake.

"This is your car?" I asked in awe. I had always loved Volkswagens. Gray nodded and opened my door for me. Gray took his place in the driver's seat and placed the keys in the ignition, bringing the car to life. A song by The Rockets immediately began to play through the speakers and I smiled to myself- he really did like them.

We had been driving for about ten minutes when Gray's phone began to ring. He fidgeted in his seat as he tried to pull his phone out of his pocket.

"Could you answer that?" He asked as he handed me his phone, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Uh, yeah." I put the call on speaker phone and held it in the air between Gray and I.

"Gray, what the hell!" The voice on the other end of the phone yelled.

"Sup, Lyon." Gray said casually. I thought he looked handsome on a regular bases, but he looked especially attractive behind a steering wheel.

" _Sup? Sup?_ You stole my car!" Lyon yelled. I turned suddenly in shock and stared at Gray with wide eyes. He noticed my expression and began to tense up a little.

"Relax. I didn't steal it, I'll be home with it tonight." He said.

"You know I needed it tonight to take Juvia out." Lyon said. Juvia? I didn't know Juvia was seeing someone.

"Just order a take out." Gray said.

"Gray, I'm gonna' kill you!" Lyon yelled.

"Gotta' go." Gray said suddenly.

"Wait, what? Don't hang up on me!" Lyon began to yell again. Gray turned to me quickly and mouthed ' _Hang up_.' So I did. I felt bad though, Lyon was halfway through saying something when I did.

"You stole this guy's car?" I asked.

" _That guy_ is my brother and he'll get over it." Gray said. So that was Gray's brother. They seemed to have your typical brotherly relationship.

"Oh. Well, I guess that's not so bad." I said. A smile began to breakout across each of our faces as we continued our journey. After a little while longer, Gray pulled in to a deserted car park that sat just beside an equally as deserted beach. It was beautiful though. The sand was so soft it crumbled beneath your feet and the waves gently lapped on to the shore. Gray opened my door for me and then the two of us walked to the back of the car where Gray opened up the trunk. There was a soft picnic blanket and plastic bag from our local super market.

"What's in the bag?" I asked as Gray lifted it from the trunk along with the blanket.

"Dinner." Gray said and gestured for me to follow him to the beach. I stood on my tiptoes, pulled the trunk shut and the hurried after Gray. He laid the blanket out on the sand and plonked himself down on it, tapping the empty space beside him for me to sit too. He opened up the bag and pulled out a couple of juice boxes.

"Apple or grape?" He asked.

"Grape, please." I smiled and caught the juice box as he tossed it to me. He continued to pull out some sandwiches and a couple of beautifully decorated cupcakes. I wasn't feeling very hungry so when Gray wasn't looking I took the opportunity to bury my sandwich beneath the sand. I felt bad since he'd spent his money on it, but he thought I had eaten it so it wasn't so bad.

"How did you find this place?" I asked as I took in our surroundings.

"My mum used to have this awesome camper van and one weekend she woke Lyon and I up at, like, five in the morning and she drove us here." He smiled.

"Really? Why?" I asked.

"I don't really know. She parked right there, opened up the back doors and the three of us sat in the back, wrapped up in blankets, watching the sunrise." He said. I could see the light in his eyes as he told me.

"That's so nice." I smiled.

"Yeah. We ended up spending the whole day here together and after that it sort of became a tradition. Every couple of months or so my mum would do it."

"Thank you for bringing me here." I said. My eyes darted between his face and his hand, which was placed just beside mine on the blanket. I was going to reach for it when Gray said something that broke my trail of thought.

"You look cold." He said.

"I'm okay." I said, but I was a little cold if I was being honest.

"Here." He said as he stood up. I wondered if he was going to give me his cardigan- I still had his hoody. But he didn't do that. He did something much better. He sat himself behind me and pulled me backwards so I was sat between his legs. I blushed like I had never blushed before as his hands rested on my waist and he closed the gap between my legs and his. "Lean back." He said.

"Okay." I nodded and leant back until I felt the warmth of his chest against my back. His hands moved from my waist and began to slide down my arms until he found my hands. He intertwined his fingers with mine and held them tight. I had never been so close to another human being before. I could feel his legs, his chest, his arms. My heart was racing like crazy but at the same time I felt strangely relaxed.

"How's that?" He asked softly.

"Much better." I said, trying to sound calmer than I felt. He rested his chin on my shoulder and the two of us sat in silence for a while, just listening to the ocean and enjoying the warmth of each other's bodies. The sun was setting and the beach was beginning to get dark, but I felt totally safe. However, there was a tension building between Gray and I, anyone could feel it. My stomach churned as I tried to fight myself but I couldn't do it any longer. I turned my head to face Gray. He stared right back at with me with an expression similar to mine.

"I want to kiss you." He said.

"Do it." I breathed. He leant in even further and pressed his lips against mine. My mind went wild. Somehow without breaking our kiss, I turned myself round ,so we were completely facing eachother, and ran my hands up his back, clenching at his cardigan. The kiss went from slow and soft to passionate and intense in a matter of seconds. His hands were under my jumper, holding my waist as he slowly leant backwards, laying us down on the blanket. Nothing in the world mattered in that moment. I forgot where we were and who we were. All I wanted to do was get as close to him as I possible could. His lips left mine and he began to leave a trail of kissed from my neck to the length of my collar bone. I gasped at the sensation of his lips brushing against my skin. It wasn't like before, in the woods. I was completely in control. Every movement was my own and had never felt so confident in my actions.

"Lucy." Gray said as his lips returned to mine.

"Yeah." I said from beneath his kiss.

"Not here." He said. I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Why not?" I said as I continued to run my hands up his back.

"I don't think we should do it _here._ "

"I think it's perfect." I said.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes." I had never been more sure of anything. I wanted him, every part of him. His heart, his mind and his body. He drew his head back and looked at me with a serious expression. "I promise. I'm sure." I said. Gray nodded and shrugged out of his cardigan before grabbing the bottom of my jumper and pulling it over my head. I was wearing one of my favourite lace bras so I was feeling even more confident with my jumper off. He grabbed my waist and with in the blink of an eye he had swapped our positions. I was now laid on the blanket and he was sat over me, straddling my waist. It was my turn to remove his top, so I did. He began to kiss my skin from my shoulders all the way to my hip bones. My entire body shuddered as his lips brushed over my stomach. He unbuttoned my jeans and began pulling them down my legs, his fingers traced my thighs as he did. My body was so alive. Every inch of my skin tingled with pleasure as Gray moved in closer. His body was on top of mine and we were having sex. It was my first time and it couldn't have been more perfect. The ocean waves roared around us and the cool breeze had each of my senses more awake than ever. Nothing can compare to the time I lost my virginity. If I could, I would relive this moment forever. He did everything right. I felt so comfortable with him, my body just melted beneath his touch. I didn't care that we were out in the open, if anything that made it more special.

* * *

Gray came up behind me as I finished putting my clothes back on. He wrapped his arms around my waist and the two of us began swaying on the spot. I felt incredible and my body was still tingling from the sex. It was like I had discovered a whole new side to myself- a spontaneous, exciting side.

"That was amazing." I said as I rested my head against his chest. My legs felt like jelly and I was honestly a little light headed.

"It really was." He said.

"We should definitely do that again." I smiled. Gray laughed a little.

"Come on, lets get you home." He said.

We walked back to the car hand in hand and began the journey home. I rested my head against the window and watched the world go by. I couldn't help but relive the whole evening over and over again in my head. I just wanted to run round in circles yelling with glee, but obviously I couldn't do that. However, I did squeal a little when I saw a fun fair on the way home.

"Can we go?" I asked as I pointed out the window.

"I don't know. You should probably get some rest." Gray said as he placed his hand on my leg. The way he it said made me realise that tonight obviously hadn't been his first time, just mine. I don't know why, but it sort of bothered me- not enough to ruin the evening though. I just shook it off and continued to plead with Gray.

"Please?" I asked. "Just half an hour."

"Okay, fine." Gray sighed and changed course for the funfair. When we got there, the place was buzzing with people. Gray took my hand and lead me through the crowds. We went on a few rides and Gray bought some cotton candy. Then I spotted the cutest thing I had even seen. A cuddly, blue seahorse was hanging from one of the funfair games. I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

"You want that seahorse, don't you?" Gray said.

"What? No." I laughed, trying to play it cool. Gray was the sort of guy that stole his brother's car and drove without a license and I was the sort of girl who lusted after cuddly toys at a funfair. I started to feel a little insecure. What if he hadn't realised how lame I was yet? What if I told him I really did want that seahorse? Would he realise how uncool I was and never want to be seen with me again? I started to panic and pulled Gray away from the games.

"Hey, wait." Gray said. "I'll win it for you."

"No, I don't want it." I said in a rush. I pulled him all the way back to the car without even looking back.

"What was that about?" Gray asked as we got back in the car.

"Nothing, just... You were right, I'm tired." I said.

"Okay, I'll drive us home."

When we pulled in to my driveway there was a boy about our age with long, white hair sat on my porch steps. His arms were folded tight across his chest and his eyes narrowed in on us as we got out the car.

"I am going to kill you." The boy said as he rose from the steps and began marching towards Gray and I.

"So, this is Lyon." Gray said to me as he dodged a swing from his brother.

"Nice to me you." I said.

"How did you know where to find me?" Gray asked.

"I remembered where Lucy lived from that house party she threw." Lyon explained with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh." I nodded.

"Give me the keys. Now." Lyon growled. Gray grabbed the keys from his pocket and dropped them in to his brother's hand.

"It still works." Gray said with a patronising tone.

"I'm going to tell mum about this." Lyon said as he stormed past us and got in his car. Gray laughed a little as he watched his brother drive away.

"wanna' watch a movie?" Gray asked.

"Yeah, sure." I smiled.

Gray was picking out a movie whilst I headed upstairs to check my cellphone. I had decided not to take it on the date with me and felt the desperate need to check my messages. My stomach churned as I my phone screen came to life.

 ** _12 Missed Calls From: Levvvy_**

 ** _9 Texts Messages From: Levvvy_**

 ** _3 Missed Calls From: Mira_**

 ** _1 Text From: Mira_**

Why had the two of them been trying to get a hold of me so desperately? I took a deep breath and opened the text from Mira first.

 _ **Text Message From Mira:**_

 _Lulu OH MY GOD! I saw what AnonyBitch_

 _posted about you. Please call me! xxx_

Now, before I go any further I should probably explain what, or who, AnonyBitch is. Our school prides itself on it's zero tolerance for bullies, however in this day and age it's impossible to stop a few from slipping through the cracks. AnonyBitch is a cyber bully that plagues our school. She pops up every now and again to make a single person's life a living hell. AnonyBitch has appeared on Facebook, Twitter, even Instagram. It doesn't take long for AnonyBitch to get shut down by the website's administrators but she still manages to do a lot of damage in the time that she is active. Her last assault was against a girl in the year below me, I think her name was Wendy. After a few months it got too intense and Wendy ended up transferring schools in the hope that the bullying would stop- which it did. I guess AnonyBitch had found a new victim- Me.

I opened Levy's texts next.

 _ **Text Message From: Levvvy**_

 _Lu, have you been on facebook? xx_

 _Lu? Are you there? xx_

 _Don't tell me you left your phone at home. x_

 _Lucy. It's really bad._

 _Try not to panic when you see it, okay?_

 _Ignore what people are commenting, they're all idiots._

 _Please call me, Lu._

 _I'm here for you._

 _Lucy, call me if you need me and I'll be right there. xxx_

I felt sick. What was going on? I grabbed my laptop and immediately logged in to Facebook. As expected, I had over twenty notifications.

"Lucy, I picked a film." Gray yelled from downstairs, but I ignored him.

 _ **AnonyBitch Tagged you in a photo:**_

I hovered over the notification for a minute, wondering what horror awaited me. When I finally clicked it, I was stunned at what I saw. It was an image of a woman falling from a cliff with my face photo shopped on to the head. The caption read:

 _ **Poor little Lucy, can't even kill herself right. Next time you feel like jumping off a cliff, I'll be there to give you a push xxx**_

People were filling up the comments with either questions about me or insults about me. It was too horrible for me to continue to look at. I shut my laptop lid and stared in to space as tears began streaming down my cheeks. So many questions were running through my head. How did AnonyBitch know what had happened on the cliff? Why was she targeting me now? Why were people joining her in the comments? My door opened then and Gray was stood in the doorway with a DVD in his hand.

"I've chosen a film." He smiled. I didn't even look at him. My shoulders began to shake as I did my best to hold back my sobs. "Lucy? What's wrong?" He asked. I couldn't open my mouth, if I did I would just scream and cry. So I just shook my head and laid down on my bed. Gray threw the DVD to the floor and rushed to sit beside me. I reached out and pulled his sleeve, hoping he would lay beside me- which he did. "Whatever's wrong, Its going to be okay." He said and wrapped his arms around me. How had such a perfect night crumbled in to such an awful one?

xx

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Okay so this was quite a dramatic chapter. I hope no one was offended by anything in this chapter and if you were I'm really sorry. There was a particular review left (You know who you are ;) ) that told me they were tired of how indecisive Lucy was being so I hope you're all happy with what went down between her and Gray in this chapter. As always, let me know any feedback that you have and I, of course, hope you enjoyed this chapter :)**


	13. One Drama Free Day

Gray fell asleep at around two AM. He had spent hours holding me close, telling me everything would be okay. After a while I had pretended to be asleep so that he could get some sleep himself- I could tell he had been keeping himself up for my sake. But I was wide awake. I refused to let myself even feel tired. If I was ever going to have that nightmare again, it would have been tonight. I didn't need that. So, once I was sure Gray was asleep, I carefully wriggled out of his embrace and climbed out of bed. My room was a mess and I began rummaging through my clothes, trying to find the hoody Gray had leant me. I finally found it, put it on and snook downstairs. It was dark outside and inside but I didn't want to risk waking Gray up, so I left the lights off. I made myself a coffee, to keep me awake, and spent the rest of the night switching between my living room and kitchen. I'd sit at the kitchen table sipping my coffee, then I'd move to the living and sit on the couch staring in to space. It wasn't a fun night, but it was soon over. Gray came downstairs at around eight O'clock in the morning. I was sat on my sofa, picking at a loose thread on one of the cushions.

"How long have you been up for?" Gray asked with a stretch as he sat down beside me.

"Not long." I lied, still focusing on the thread.

"How long have you been up?" Gray asked again as he grabbed my fingers to stop me picking at the cushion.

"I never slept." I admitted. Gray sighed and rolled his eyes all at once.

"Why not?" He asked.

"I wasn't tired." I shrugged.

"Liar." Gray said.

"No, I'm not." I protested.

"I can see that you're exhausted." He said as he picked my mug of coffee up from the table. I took the mug from him, got up and wondered in to the kitchen. Gray followed me and leant against one of the counters. "Why don't you get ready for school, while I make us some breakfast?" He asked.

"I'm not going to school today." I shook my head.

"What's going on, Lucy?" He asked. I opened my mouth to respond, but I was interrupted by someone banging on my front door. It made me jump and Gray noticed. "It's okay, I'll get it." He said and hopped off the counter. I hid around the corner of my kitchen doorway and tried to listen in as Gray opened the door.

"Gray? What are you doing here?" It was Natsu. I breathed a sigh of relief, but remained hidden.

"Same to you." Gray said.

"I'm here to check on Lucy. Where is she?"

"What is going?" Gray asked. "She hasn't told me anything."

"Check Facebook." Natsu said. There was a minute of silence, I guessed Natsu was showing Gray what AnonyBitch had posted about me. My heart sank.

"What the hell." Gray said. He was seeing it for sure. "What is this?"

"She's back and Lucy's her new target." Natsu said.

"No wonder she was so upset last night." Gray said.

"So, you spent the night." Natsu said.

"It's not like that, Natsu. There was no way I was leaving her alone like that." Gray said defensively.

"Yeah. Yeah, I get it." Natsu said quietly. Gray returned to the kitchen then, with Natsu close behind. They both had an odd expression on their face and I began to shift back and forth, feeling more than uncomfortable.

"Hey, Lucy. How ya' holding up?" Natsu asked.

"I'm okay." I said with a small smile.

"Liar." Gray said.

"Stop saying that." I said with a glare.

"Look, I've got somewhere to be today. I think Natsu should stay here with you, if you really won't go to school." Gray said.

"I don't need anyone to stay." I said. "I'm fine on my own."

"Even if we did believe you, I still wouldn't leave." Natsu said. Guess I wasn't really getting a choice in the matter.

"Well, now that that's sorted, I'm going to head out." Gray said. I walked him to the door and just as I was opening it Levy flew inside and flung her arms around me.

"Lu! Oh my god! I've been so worried about you." Levy wailed as she clung my head to her chest.

"Levy, I'm okay." I said, struggling to breath.

"I made my mum drive me here before school so we could drive in together with our heads held high." Levy said with a smile.

"She's not going." Gray said dryly.

"Oh, Gray. I didn't see you there." Levy said, finally releasing me from her embrace. "Wait, what? You're not going to school today?" Levy asked me.

"Not today."

"Is that a good idea?" Levy asked me with a concerned look.

"I'm fine on my own, like I keep saying." I sighed.

"But I'll be here, just in case she's not." Natsu said as he sauntered in to the room.

"Oh, Natsu's here too." Levy said with a raised brow. I shot her a look as if to say _I'll tell you about it later_ and she nodded in understanding. "I'll come round straight after school, yeah?" Levy asked.

"Yeah, okay." I said. There was no point arguing with my friends, they seemed to make all my decisions for me.

"Do you need a lift to school? Or home?" Levy asked as she looked Gray up and down. He was still wearing yesterdays clothes and they were all crinkled from him sleeping in them- and a little sandy too.

"Thanks, but I've got somewhere else to be." Gray said before leaving.

"Okay... I'll see you later, Lu." Levy said. And just like that, it was just Natsu and I. He was leant against the kitchen doorway, watching me as I walked towards him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.

"Not particularly." I said, passing him and entering the kitchen.

"Thought not." He said.

"Coffee?" I asked as I began to fill the kettle with water.

"No, thanks." Natsu said. He continued to watch me as I pottered about the kitchen. Things definitely felt a little awkward between us. For some reason, I felt an obligation to tell him about Gray and I. It's not like Natsu and I had been dating though, so why did I feel guilty?

"Can you stop that?" I asked after a while.

"Stop what?" He said with a blank face.

"Watching me like that."

"I'm just waiting." He said.

"For?"

"For you to tell me what's really going on with you." He said. I sighed. This is exactly why I wanted to be on my own. I didn't want to be answering questions all day, otherwise I would have gone to school.

"I just need one drama-free day." I said before taking a sip of my coffee.

"Okay, fine." Natsu said, raising his hands in defence.

"Good." I said with a nod.

* * *

Natsu and I were watching a movie but I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Every now and then my head would droop and I'd have to shake myself awake. Natsu watched me with a smirk across his face.

"Why don't you just take a nap?" He asked.

"I'm fine." I said.

"Even ten minutes would be something."

"I'm gonna' go take a shower." I said, suddenly jumping up from the sofa. I couldn't sit there any longer, I'd fall asleep for sure.

"Okay. Should I make us some lunch?" Natsu asked.

"Sure." I said as I rushed up the stairs. A cold shower was exactly what I needed.

I had just finished my shower and was in my room getting dressed when Natsu appeared in my doorway.

"Did you find something to eat?" I asked as I shrugged in to Gray's hoody.

"No, you _still_ haven't gone shopping." He said.

"Oh. Yeah. I'll go tomorrow." I said.

"Lucy."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I told people about what happened? On the cliff." He asked me with a serious expression. To be honest, the thought had never crossed my mind. I knew he wouldn't do that to me.

"No. Of course not." I said.

"Then, why do things feel... weird between us?" He asked. I sighed. I really didn't want to have this conversation.

"There is something I should probably tell you." I said.

"Okay..." He said with narrowed eyes. The two of us headed downstairs and sat next to each other on my sofa.

"Gray and I... We, um." I didn't know how to say it. I couldn't just blurt out that we had had sex. But I couldn't exactly call us a couple either. Not yet, anyway. Did I really even need to tell Natsu?

"I know." He said.

"You do?" I asked suddenly, worried that AnonyBitch had posted about that too.

"It's kind of obvious, Lucy. Plus, Lyon told me the two of you were going on a date last night." He said.

"I'm sorry." I said. Although, I didn't really know what I was apologising for. I hand't cheated on anyone and I was sure I hadn't lead anyone on.

"You don't need to be sorry." He laughed a little. "I'm the sorry one."

"Why are you sorry?" I asked.

"I'm sorry Gray beat me to it." He said with a small smile.

"Natsu." I began but I was interrupted once again by someone at my door. I heard Natsu sigh as I got up and answered the door. It was Gray.

"You're back. I thought you had _somewhere to be_." I said in my best impression of Gray's voice.

"I did." He said. He had his hands behind his back. "Can I come in?" He asked.

"Yeah." I smiled and let him in. Natsu rolled his eyes and sunk in to the cushions on the sofa.

"I went back to that funfair." He said.

"That's where you had to be?" I asked as I shut the front door.

"Yeah. It was the only place I could get this." He said. I turned around to find Gray holding out the cuddly seahorse I had fallen in love with from the night before.

"Oh my god, Gray!" I laughed and threw my arms around him.

"So, you like it?" He asked.

"Of course. Thank you." I smiled as he handed me the seahorse.

"I knew you wanted it." He smirked. At that moment Natsu jumped up from the sofa, grabbed his school rucksack and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm leaving." Natsu said as he swung open my front door.

"Natsu, wait." I said.

"Three's a crowd, Lucy." Natsu said before shutting the door behind him.

"So, you told him about us." Gray said.

"I didn't have to." I sighed.

"Yeah, I thought that might be the case."

"Um, Gray?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"What exactly is _us_? If you know what I mean." I said.

"I don't know." He said. That wasn't the answer I was hoping for.

"Oh, okay." I said.

"Lucy, I-" He began, but I interrupted him.

"I'm actually really tired." I said in a rush. "I'm gonna' get some sleep."

"Okay, I'll just watch TV or something." He said.

"No, you should go." I smiled and began pushing him towards the door.

"Hey, Lucy. Wait." He said as I opened the door and continued to usher him out of it.

"I'll see you tomorrow. At school." I said. "Thank you for the seahorse!" I shut the door and leant my head against it, clutching the seahorse Gray had won for me. I was so disappointed. When I asked him what we were I had wanted him to ask me to be his girlfriend. But he just _didn't know_. What was I supposed to do with that information? Had I upset Natsu over nothing? Was that night with Gray just a one time thing?

"Urgh!" I exclaimed before flopping down on my sofa.

* * *

I counted down the minutes until four O'clock. That was the time Levy was meant to be coming round.

"three fifty-nine." I said to myself as I watched the clock. Levy arrived right on time. She hadn't even finished knocking before I swung the door open. She was the only person I wanted to see, the only person I could completely relax around. But as the door opened I saw not just Levy, but Mira, Lisanna and Juvia too.

"Oh, hey." I said.

"I know we weren't invited." Lisanna said with an apologetic look.

"Well, what were we supposed to do?" Mira asked in a huff. "You weren't answering our calls or messages."

"We just wanted to make sure you were okay." Juvia smiled.

"And to make sure you hadn't, you know..." Mira said with a suggestive look. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Mira! Don't say stuff like that." Lisanna said.

"Anyway." Levy said. "Can we come in?"

"Yeah. Sure." I said. This was going to be an interesting evening.

The five of us were milling around my kitchen and it was a little awkward. No one really knew what to say me, I could tell they all pitied me and I hated it. After a while Mira came across Helen's wine cabinet. She began pulling out bottles.

"Nice collection." She said as she admired the bottles. By now I had realised that Mira was somewhat of a wine expert.

"Do you want a glass?" I asked. I don't know why I asked that, it just sort of blurted out. But there was a part of me that really wanted her to say yes, just so that I could have a class too.

"Really?" Mira looked up suddenly.

"Yeah, sure." I smiled and got out five wine glasses.

"Lucy, you are bad." Mira winked as I filled her glass. The five of us clinked our classes together and began sipping from them.

"So, did I miss anything at school today?" I asked.

"Well..." Mira began.

"Mira, don't." Juvia said.

"What? You have to tell me." I said.

"It's just that, the picture that AnonyBitch posted last night had been printed out ,like, ten times and stuck all over your locker." Mira said.

"What?" I asked sadly.

"Don't worry. We took them down straight away and put them in the bin." Levy smiled.

"I wanted to burn them." Mira mumbled. I took a long, long sip of wine and poured myself another glass. I could just imagine everyone at school talking about me.

"Lets not talk about that, hey." Levy said.

"Tell us about your date." Lisanna grinned.

"It was great." I smiled.

"It was?" Juvia asked.

"Yeah. Oh, by the way sorry Gray and I ruined your date with Lyon." I said. Juvia went bright red.

"What? Lyon and I weren't going on a date! He just wanted to take me out to dinner, I didn't actually agree to it though." Juvia protested, now she was the one taking a long sip of wine. The five of us laughed and began to gossip about the boys in our lives. It felt nice to not have the conversation be about me, for a change.

After a few hours, and a few bottles of wine, we were all feeling more than a little tipsy. We had gradually made our way to my room and were dancing around to music Lisanna was playing through her phone. Then I spotted myself in the mirror. My hair was a complete mess. I mean it was all over the place. It was frizzy and quite frankly looked terrible. I stumbled to my desk and sat down at it, pulling at my hair and sectioning it in different ways.

"Hey, you guys!" I exclaimed.

"What?" Levy said as she came up behind me and began leaning on my shoulder.

"Lets cut my hair!" I said excitedly. Mira immediately jumped up from the floor and ran to my side, pushing Levy out of the way.

"Oh my god! Yes!" Mira yelled.

"Are you guys sure?" Juvia asked.

"You could totally rock short hair." Lisanna mumbled as she continued to dance behind us.

"Right? I think so too!" I said.

"Let me do it, please! I do Lisanna's." Mira begged.

"Sure, why not?" I cheered. I ran downstairs, grabbed some scissors and returned ready for my makeover.

"Are you sure your're sure?" Levy asked, slurring her s's.

"I'm so incredibly sure." I said as I handed Mira the scissors.

"Let's do this." Mira winked. I sat back at my desk and stared in the mirror as I watched Mira hack off chunks off my hair. I couldn't help but laugh. In fact, we were all laughing.

"You are gonna' look so bad ass." Lisanna said. "AnonyBitch won't mess with you now."

"Yeah. Bad ass." I said as I watched the inches fall from my hair. After a while my door bell rang.

"I'll get it!" Mira said and slammed the scissors on the desk.

"No, I'll get!" Levy said.

"Let's all get it." Juvia said, trying to keep the peace. I think she was the only one out of the five of us that was remotely sober.

"Wait, what about my hair?" I yelled as Juvia, Mira and Levy ran down stairs.

"I'll tidy it up for ya'" Lisanna said, finally retiring from her dancing. She grabbed the scissors and began snipping away at my hair. She was much more gentle than Mira.

"Hey, can I tell you something?" I asked.

"Sure."

"Last night, after you came to my house like that-" I paused to let out a burp. "-Excuse me. Any way, where was I? Oh yeah. After you came to my house last night, I thought you might have been AnonyBitch." I mumbled.

"Yeah, I don't blame you." She said. "One of the main reasons I wanted to come tonight was to apologise."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. I was just a little jealous about you and Natsu. It made me act like a freak." She laughed.

"Well, you don't need to worry about me and Natsu anymore." I hiccuped.

"Why not?" Lisanna asked as she ran a brush through my hair.

"He hates me. He said _three's a crowd, Lucy_!" I said, trying to mimic his voice.

"What did he mean by that?" Lisanna asked.

"Who knows?" I said, throwing my arms up in the air.

"Well, anyway, your new do is complete." Lisanna said as she ran her hands through my hair one last time. My hair had gone from halfway down my back to a blunt cut that sat a couple of inches above my shoulders. I shook my head from left to right and admired the new, healthy flow of my locks.

"I love it!" I squealed.

"It's called a Lob." Lisanna said. I stared at her in confusion. "Lob, a long bob. Lob!" She explained with a cheer.

"Oh!" I nodded. Levy ran back in to my room then.

"Lucy, your boyfriend's here." She sang with a wink.

"Who?" I asked.

"Gray, duh!" Levy said.

"He is?" I grinned and ran past Levy. If it wasn't for all the alcohol running through my system, I wouldn't have been as happy to see him. He was stood in my living room talking to Juvia and Mira when I suddenly threw myself at him. "Gray!" I yelled as he caught me in his arms.

"Whoa, hey." He laughed.

"What're you doing here?" I asked, trying to keep down another burp.

"I felt bad about how we left things earlier." He said, doing his best to keep me on my feet.

"Lisanna cut my hair." I smiled, completely ignoring what he had said.

"Wait, seriously?" He asked, grabbing my shoulders and holding me at arms length to get a good look at my new hair.

"Don't you like it?" I asked sadly.

"No, I do. It looks cute." He smiled.

"Cute? It's meant to be bad ass!" I said, punching him in the arm. My punch made me stumble forwards causing Gray to grab my waist in an attempt to keep me up right.

"Lucy, are you drunk?" Gray asked.

"No, are you?" I asked back.

"She is." Mira whispered. Maybe I had drank a lot more than the other girls, I just hadn't realised it at the time.

"Why are you drunk?" Gray asked with a disproving look on his face.

"I don't know. I just am, okay?" I said, waving my arms in annoyance.

"Okay. Lets get you some fresh air." Gray said as he held me close and lead me out the house.

"Lets go for a walk!" I said.

"You can barely stand." Gray replied in his usual dry tone.

"Then you carry me." I poked him in the chest and put one hand on my hip. He looked at me for a moment, as if thinking something over.

"Okay." He sighed.

"Really?"

"Yep, hop on." Gray said as he turned his back to me.

"Yay!" I cheered as I clambered on to his back.

"Hold tight." He said. So, I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his shoulders. My head was rested on Gray's shoulder and I was a humming a tune to myself as he carried me around the neighbourhood. There wasn't anyone around at this time in the evening, luckily for me. I'd hate for the neighbours to see me like that. Every now and then Gray would hoist me up if I began to slip and it made me laugh every time. With my hair cut the way it was, I could feel the cool breeze on my neck and it was making me sleepy. I shut my eyes and exhaled deeply. Gray smelt so nice- even nicer than my honey shampoo.

"You awake back there?" Gray asked. I simply hummed in response. "You know, I came round to ask you something tonight."

"What was it?" I asked sleepily.

"I think I'm going to wait." He said.

"Why?"

"I want you to be sober when I ask." He said.

"I am sober!" I said, poking him in the back.

"Oh, yeah? Hey, Lucy. Would you like fries with that?" He asked. It was a mean attempt to check just how drunk I was, but it did the job. Annoyingly.

"Of course. Fries should come with the meal any way." I said. Gray laughed.

"Okay, I don't think the fresh air is doing anything." Gray said, turning us around and heading back home.

"Where are you going?" I asked, shutting my eyes again.

"Back home." He said.

When the two of us arrived at my house, the other girls had already left. I don't know where or why they had gone but a part of was sort of glad that the house was empty. Gray carried me upstairs and tucked me in to bed before grabbing a glass of water to put on my bedside table. I pulled the covers all the way up to my chin and stared up at Gray with hazy eyes. He sat down on the bed and brushed my hair away from my face.

"I don't know what got in to you tonight." He said.

"Could you get me the seahorse?" I asked sleepily.

"Sure." Gray smiled. He headed downstairs for brief moment and returned with the seahorse in hand. He sat back on the bed, pulled back the covers and tucked the seahorse under my arm.

"Thank you." I said, cuddling it close to my chest.

"What are you gonna' call it?" He asked.

"Gray, of course." I said with a yawn, making Gray laugh.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Tired."

"Well, shut your eyes then." Gray smiled and placed his hand over my eyes. I giggled and placed my hand over his.

"I want to tell you something." I whispered, keeping his hand over my eyes.

"Shoot." He said.

"You're one of my favourite people." I whispered. Gray laughed.

"You're one of my favourite people too, Lucy." He said.

 _x :) x_

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Apologies for not much happening in this chapter. I hope you didn't find it too boring. There is a lot more drama to come. I also wanted to say don't start guessing who AnonyBitch is yet, you could very well be wrong ;) Anyways, I hope everyone is well and thank you for reading!**


	14. Easy

**Wednesday morning**

My morning alarm pierced through my ears, jolting me awake. I fumbled around my bed sheets desperately trying to find my phone to turn off the alarm. My head was thumping and my throat had never felt so dry.

"Water. I need water." I gasped as I gracefully fell out of bed. The little bin from the bathroom had been placed beside my bed and I congratulated myself when I saw it was vomit free. Although, I did wonder who had put it there. Had I put it there? Come to think of it, what had even happened last night. I couldn't remember a thing. As I opened my bedroom door I heard the sound of pots and pans clanging together. Someone was in my kitchen. Nervously, I snook down stairs and prepared myself to face who ever it may be. But it was no intruder. It was Helen. I breathed a sigh of relief and entered the kitchen where she was preparing some kind of breakfast.

"Hey, hun." She smiled as I sat myself on a stool at the kitchen counter. We hadn't left on very good terms last week but, just like always, Helen was acting like we had never argued and everything was fine.

"Hey, I thought you weren't home until tonight." I said, dropping my head in to my hands. The kitchen was far too bright for me yet.

"Nope. My flight was last night. I got home bright and early this morning." She chirped. For someone that had been a long and dragging flight, she looked seriously fresh and ready for work.

"Oh." I said.

"I'm just making you a smoothie. It'll settle your stomach." She said as she dropped some fruit in to the blender. I panicked for a second. Did she know I was hungover? Did she know we had drank most of the wine?

"Settle my stomach?" I asked.

"Yeah. That nice boy explained to me that you'd caught a stomach bug." She said with a sad pout.

"Nice boy?" I asked but Helen had turned on the blender, which completely drowned out my voice. I clasped my hands to my ears and waited for the horrifying noise to stop. Helen poured the pinky coloured smoothie in to a tall glass and handed it to me.

"There you go. Drink up." She said.

"What boy?" I asked before taking a sip. It was delicious. Helen sat down next to me with a smile.

"Well, when I got home this morning I came upstairs to find a rather handsome young man asleep against the wall outside your room." Helen explained. My stomach did a little flip.

"You did?" I asked, feeling a mixture of embarrassed and confused.

"Yes. So, I went over to wake the poor boy up and ask him what on earth he was doing." She said. "He told me you'd been home all day with a nasty stomach bug and he had spent the night to make sure you were okay."

"Oh." I said.

"I think he said his name was Gray. He seemed ever so sweet."

It all came flooding back. Me throwing myself at Gray, making him carry me around the neighbourhood. Then coming home and having him tuck me in to bed. How could I ever look him in the eye again? I was mortified. Especially with Helen coming home and finding him camped out outside my room. At least he hadn't told her the truth, I'll need to thank him for that.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Helen grinned.

"What! No, no. He's not." I said in a rush. Helen laughed to herself and got up from her stool.

"Look, I have to go to work. But, how about we have dinner tonight?" She asked. Trust Helen to go back to work just hours after stepping off a plane.

"Yeah, I'd like that." I nodded. With all the craziness going on in my life at the moment, having Helen back might be a good thing. Maybe I could lean on her a little more than I usually do. I mean, the smoothie really was making me feel better.

"I'll pick you up after school. Promise you'll actually be there this time?" Helen asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"I promise." I nodded.

"Good. By the way." She said, grabbing her bag and heading for the door. "I love your hair like that."

"Thanks." I smiled as I watched her leave the house. "Wait, what?" I raised a hand and almost had a heart attack when I couldn't feel my hair draped over my shoulders. I ran to my room and stared at the horror before me. There was chunks of my hair all over my floor and desk. "Oh god." I breathed as I braced myself to gaze upon my own reflection. But, honestly, I liked it too. I'd never seen myself with short hair before and I was kind of digging it. I mean, it needed a little straightening that's for sure, but it didn't look half bad.

* * *

After spending a good hour getting ready for school, I met with Levy outside my house. She looked as bad as I felt.

"So, last night..." Levy said as the two of us began the walk to school.

"Yeah. It was weird, right?" I asked.

"Super weird. Lisanna, Mira and I ended up getting a pizza delivered to the pier and eating it on the beach."

"I didn't know you could get pizza delivered to the pier." I said.

"Apparently the delivery guy has a massive crush on Mira and Lisanna and would literally deliver them a pizza anywhere." Levy laughed. "Any way, what happened with you and Gray?"

"He actually spent the night." I said nervously. Levy's eyes widened and she gasped a little.

"How could he take advantage of you like that?" She demanded.

"No, no. It wasn't like that." I said. "He just made sure I got to bed and then spent the night outside my room."

"He spent the night outside your room?" Levy asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah. I guess it was to make sure I'd be okay." I shrugged.

"Well, that's sweet in a weird sort of way." Levy said.

"He even lied to Helen for me. He told her I had a stomach bug." I said.

"That was nice of him." Levy nodded with approval. I wanted to get her on Gray and mine's side as much as I could before dropping the bomb on her that the two of us had had sex.

"He's a good guy." I smiled.

"Yeah, I've always like him." Levy said.

"Okay, well, I have something to tell you." I began.

"Go on." Levy said with a straight face.

"When Gray and I we're on our date on Monday we... Um." I stuttered.

"Lu, spit it out." Levy said.

"We had sex." I said suddenly. Levy stopped walking and looked completely taken back. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. I took a deep breath and waited for her eventual response.

"What. The. Hell." She said.

"We did it on a beach." I added.

"What. The. Hell." She was yelling this time.

"Is that all you're gonna' say?" I asked.

"I don't _know_ what to say. I mean seriously, Lucy. What the hell?" She said. I don't know what I was expecting her reaction to be like, I think a part of me thought she might just laugh or something. But, boy, was I wrong?

"Why are you mad?" I asked.

"Because, Lucy!" Levy sighed heavily.

" _Because_ isn't an answer." I said.

"You go on one date with this guy and then just give him your virginity like that? Don't you have any respect for yourself? Please tell me you used protection, at least" Levy said.

"Whoa, hey. Of course I respect myself. It's not like what you're thinking. It was romantic and passionate. And, yes, we did use protection." I said. I couldn't believe she had said that to me. This was not the conversation I thought we would be having. Aren't best friends supposed to giggle and gossip over this kind of thing? Not argue and yell.

"For you, maybe. But for him it was probably just another hook up to count." Levy said.

"He's not like that." I said quietly, feeling pretty hurt.

"How do know, Lucy? You've been on one date." Levy said. It's true, she knew Gray better than I did. But, anyone who had spent any time with him could tell he wasn't the guy Levy was making him out to be.

"Why are you being like this?" I asked with my head hung low.

"I just didn't think you were like this." She sighed.

"Like what?" I asked, afraid of her answer.

"Easy." She said. I gasped and looked her dead in the eye.

"Easy?" I asked angrily. "How could you call me that?" I thought she might regret it and immediately take it back, but she didn't. She just stared at me, expressionless. I turned on my heels and began marching onwards with tears pricking at my eyes. She may as well have called me a slut. She was so wrong, about everything. About Gray, about me. She was supposed to be my best friend and support me through thick and thin. But all she had done was judge me. Just like everybody else at school. I wiped away a single tear that had managed to escape down my cheek, when I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw Gray waving at me from the school gates in the distance. I picked up my pace. I picked up my pace until I was running and when I finally reached him, I threw my arms around his waist and held him tight.

"So, is this just how you're going to greet me from now on?" Gray asked with a grin. I looked up at him with watery eyes and tried to smile. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, placing a hand on my head.

"I don't know. Everything, I think." I sniffed.

"Everything, you think?" Gray asked with a slight grin.

"Ugh, I'm just being stupid." I laughed and let go of his waist. This wasn't how I wanted to start the day, so I shook myself off and put on a brave face.

"You can tell me." Gray said. But just as I was about to tell him the argument I had had with Levy, she walked past us. She stared us down as she stomped by and in to the school.

"Ah." Gray nodded. "I'm guessing by that murderous look Levy just shot me, you told her about us."

"Yeah, she didn't take it too well." I said.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about that, myself." Gray said. Oh god, here it comes. The rejection.

"Okay." I said, taking a deep breath to brace myself for the inevitable heartbreak that was coming my way.

"I came round last night, do you remember?" He asked. I blushed with embarrassment.

"Yes. Gray, I'm so sorry about last night." I said.

"It's okay, you were kinda cute." He smirked.

"Oh god." I clasped my hands to my face and began shaking my head.

"I came round to ask you something, but I knew you wouldn't remember it so-" He grabbed my hands pulled them away from my face. "-I was wondering if you would be my girlfriend."

"Wait, really?" I asked. I had been so ready for him to tell me it was over, but it was the complete opposite.

"Yes, really." Gray laughed.

"Of course!" I said and threw my arms around his shoulders. "Wait, you're not just asking me because you feel sorry for me are you?" I asked, pulling away.

"No. I really like you, Lucy. I should of told you that yesterday when you asked me." He said.

"Well, why didn't you?" I asked.

"Honestly, I was nervous." He said.

"Nervous?"

"Yes, you make me nervous." Gray said with a blush across his cheeks.

"I do?" I grinned.

"Yeah. But when you kicked me out yesterday-"

"-I didn't kick you out." I protested it.

"You did. Anyway, when you kicked me out and I went home I suddenly got really mad at myself. I couldn't wait to come back and ask you to be my girlfriend." He said. I felt even worse for being drunk now. All I could do was smile and pull him in for a kiss.

"Oh my! Isn't young love just the sweetest thing." Someone said beside us. We pulled apart and turned to find Miss Evergreen watching us with a romantic smile on her face. Gray and I both blushed before hurrying inside.

* * *

When I got to class I was surprised to see Lisanna in Levy's seat once again and Levy sat at the front.

"Seriously?" I asked Lisanna as I sat down at my desk.

"When I got to class she was already sat at my desk." Lisanna said. "Have you fallen out again?"

"Yeah, something like that." I sighed.

"Can I help?" Lisanna asked.

"No, I don't think so." I shook my head. "Thanks, though." I smiled.

When lunch break finally came around Lisanna was met at the classroom by Natsu. It was like he wasn't expecting to see me, but he knew that was my classroom too.

"Oh, hey." He said as I entered the hallway with Lisanna.

"Hi." I smiled.

"Did you wanna' join us for lunch?"Lisanna asked, putting her arm around Natsu's shoulders. Natsu immediately looked annoyed that Lisanna had asked me.

"Thanks, but I actually have a lunch date of my own." I said.

"Okay. See ya' later, Lu." Lisanna waved as her and Natsu walked away, hand in hand. Were they official now? I hadn't heard anything and I was sure gossip like that would have spread round the school like wild fire.

After another minute of waiting outside the classroom, Gray sauntered towards me. His rucksack was hanging off one shoulder and his school jumper was tied loosely around his waist. He had the _Too Cool For School_ act nailed and I found it rather attractive. He had me swooning with just the way he walked. I almost forgot he was actually my boyfriend now. The sudden realisation made me blush.

"Hey, ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah. I just need to get my lunch money." I said.

"Lead the way." Gray said, bowing his head with a grin. The two of us headed to my locker but it wasn't my lunch money I found when I opened it. A pile of rocks poured out of my locker as I opened the door. I had to jump out the way to avoid having my toes crushed. Every one around us stared at the mess spilling on to the floor. My books were covered in dirt and looked like someone had been trying to shred them. I stared in shock.

"What the hell!" Gray said angrily. I noticed some writing on one of the rocks and picked it up. It read:

 _Welcome Back, Lucy_

 _AnonyBitch x_

"AnonyBitch did this." I showed Gray the rock and he snatched it from me with a narrowed brow.

"But, she's only ever been a _cyber_ bully. She's never done anything like this before." Gray said, gesturing to the mess my locker was in. He was right though. AnonyBitch had never attacked anyone at school before, that's never been the way she worked.

"Yeah, well, I've obviously done something to really piss her off." I said, crouching down to pick up the rocks.

"We have to tell someone about this." Gray said.

"Can you just help me clear this up, please?" I asked.

"Lucy, come on. We-"

"-Gray, please?" I asked again. He sighed but joined me on the floor to clear things up. Afterwards, we headed to the canteen where we began arguing over what to do about AnonyBitch. In the end Gray agreed to not to tell any teachers, but he wasn't happy about it.

Whilst Gray fumed over the rock in his hand, I watched Natsu from across the canteen. Lisanna was sat in his lap rambling on about something, but Natsu was just sat there staring in to space. Until he saw me, that is. His eyes locked with mine and the second they did he grabbed Lisanna's waist and squeezed her tight, causing her to burst in to a fit of giggles. I narrowed my eyes at him and turned away.

"So, what do you think?" Gray asked. It was then that I realised I hadn't been listening to a word he said. I stared at him, trying to think of a response. "Can you come round tonight?" He asked.

"Oh, um. I can't, Helen's taking me out for dinner." I said.

"So, she's back?" Gray said, looking slightly embarrassed.

"I think you know she's back." I grinned.

"She told you she saw me then." Gray's cheeks began to turn a little pink.

"She told me exactly what happened." I laughed.

"God." He sighed, now completely blushing.

"Thank you. For covering for me and for looking after me." I said. Gray looked up and smiled at me. "You know, you're pretty cute when you blush." I said.

"Oh, yeah?" He grinned.

"Yeah." I leant over the table and gave him a peck on the lips. But, before I could even sit back down Natsu was looming over us.

"Can we talk?" Natsu asked dryly.

"Me and you?" I asked as I returned to my seat.

"I think he means me." Gray said. Natsu nodded his head.

"Okay, I'll see you later?" I asked as Gray got up from the table.

"Yeah." He smiled before Natsu dragged him from the canteen. I sighed heavily and stared at Gray's empty seat. Natsu was making things a lot more awkward than they needed to be and it was a little annoying. Lisanna suddenly jumped in to Gray's seat and grabbed my hands from across the table.

"We should totally go on a double date!" She cheered. I laughed. She was so clueless.

* * *

Gray was supposed to be meeting me at my classroom after school, but after ten minutes of waiting I guessed he wasn't showing up. So, I headed to the school gates and there he was, leaving with out me. I hurried up to him and grabbed his shoulder.

"What happened? Did you forget you were meant to be meeting me?" I asked.

"Yeah, sorry." He said.

"Okay. Well, will you still wait with me until Helen arrives?" I could see Gray's eyes darting around as I was talking to him. He was obviously looking for someone.

"Uh, I can't." He said and began to walk away.

"Hey, wait." I hurried again and walked at his side, trying to keep up with his pace. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, I'm just in a hurry to get home." He said.

"You're acting weird. Does this have something to do with what Natsu wanted to talk to you about?" I asked. He shot me a sidewards glance which obviously meant ' _yes'._ I sighed and shook my head.

"I'll call you tonight, okay?" He said.

"Yep'. Okay." I sighed and stopped walking, letting him hurry away. Helen pulled up then, in her flashy white sports car, and began beeping her horn- which was unnecessary. All the other kids that were filtering out of the school gates stared at me as I climbed in to Helen's swanky car. Maybe seeing me in something like this would be good for my image at school- as shallow as that sounds.

"Good day?" Helen asked as I shut my door. She looked great. Her perfectly curled hair was brushed off her face by a pair of designer sunglasses while she topped up her lip gloss in the rear view mirror. She held the lip gloss out to me, offering me to put some on, but I shook my head.

"Yes and no." I said.

"Oh?" Helen questioned, tucking her lip gloss away in to her cleavage.

"We can talk about it at dinner." I said, I needed a few more minutes to think out exactly what I was and wasn't going to tell Helen.

"Okay, lets get going then." She said, revving the engine.

"Uh, wait." I said suddenly. "There's somewhere I need you to take me first, it won't take long."

"Just tell me where." Helen smiled.

"It's a boy's house." I said. "I need to give him a piece of my mind."

 _x ;) x_

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Apologies for how long this chapter took me to write. Not gonna lie, I was suffering from a bit of writer's block but I'm over it now and will be updating frequently again :) To those of you that are disappointed that this story is heading towards Gralu, I'm sorry but I had to pick one or the other and more people seemed to want Gralu than Nalu. If you are truly upset by my decision to make this a Gralu Fic then maybe I can work on a new fanfic and make that one a Nalu story, what do you think? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to review and let me know! :) And ,of course, I hope you're all doing well and are enjoying life! :)**


	15. Drama Or Passion?

We pulled up on to Natsu's road, he had shown me where he lived when he had walked me home from the aquarium. It a small bungalow sheltered by tall trees and surrounded by fancy flower beds and shrubs. I sat in the car for a minute, wondering what exactly I wanted to say. But, then Natsu showed up. He walked down the road and in to his front garden, not noticing me or even looking in my direction. A small cat jumped out from one of the shrubs to greet him. Natsu knelt down and picked the cat up, carrying him to the door with a smile.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Helen encouraged.

"Uh, right." I nodded before hopping out the car and crossing the road. Natsu was just opening the door when I reached him. "Mind if I come in?" I asked. But, I wasn't really asking. I was coming in no matter what he said.

"Lucy?" Natsu looked surprised.

"Thanks." I said and moved past him to enter the bungalow. It was a nice place, the kind of place I'd imagine him living in. Very open and decorated with cool colours like blue and white. Natsu shut the door behind us and put his cat on the floor.

 _So that must be happy. I remember him telling me he had a cat named happy._ I thought.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I want to know what you said to Gray." I said, folding my arms across my chest. Natsu sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Lucy." He said.

"Just tell me."

"It's between Gray and I." Natsu said, sauntering in to his kitchen. I rolled my eyes and followed close behind him.

"No, it's not. It's between all three of us." I said.

"Is it?" He asked.

"Yes, if you're telling my own boyfriend to avoid me." I said. He grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and took a large bite out of it. His cheeks filled as he chewed away, treating me like an idiot. "You can't avoid answering by stuffing your mouth." I said.

"Worth a shot." He said through a mouthful of chewed up apple. He swallowed and awkwardly cleared his throat. "I didn't tell him to avoid you."

"So, what did you say to him?" I asked again. Natsu shut his eyes and dropped his head back. "Natsu." I said with a stern tone.

"I told him I like you, Lucy." He said, still with his head back.

"What." I said. I mean, I sort of knew he liked me but it was strange actually hearing him say it.

"Come on, you know I do." He said. "Gray's one of my oldest friends and it sucks to see you two together."

"Well, you won't have to see us together anymore because thanks to you're little talk, he wont come near me." I said. I was getting mad and I wasn't really sure why. Natsu had actually had the guts to tell me how he feels and I was just getting angry at him. He didn't deserve it but it was all that I could do.

"I'm sorry, I'll talk to him." Natsu said, finally looking at me.

"No, don't. I'll talk to him. You've said enough to him already." I said and turned around to leave, but he followed me. "Oh, and by the way, I don't appreciate the way you were treating me at school today." I said as I marched towards the door.

"What are you talking about?" He asked with a narrowed brow.

"Acting annoyed to see me, being all over Lisanna when you know I'm looking and not to mention the way you dragged Gray away from me at Lunch." I was just being dramatic now, I knew I was but it kind of felt good to unload on to someone. "I thought we were close and I had hoped my relationship with Gray wouldn't affect my friendship with you. But I guess you're not quite as mature as I am." I said before opening the door and walking outside.

"Lucy." Natsu's hand was suddenly around my wrist, stopping me dead in my tracks. I turned my head to look at him and his face was so serious. "Gray and I may be friends, but that's not going to hold me back anymore." He said.

"What?" I gasped, staring at him with wide eyes. My confidence had slithered away the second his skin touched mine.

"This, us, we're meant to be together. If you think I'm immature, that's fine. But, I _will_ fight for you, Lucy." He said as he stared deep in to my eyes. My heart thumped against my chest and I struggled to catch my breath. I tried to think of something to say but there were just no words. I simply pulled my wrist out of his hand and ran back to Helen's car. I jumped in and slammed the door shut.

"Go, go." I breathed as I fumbled with my seatbelt.

"Okay, okay. Don't get your panties in a twist." Helen said as she pulled away and began driving up the road. "Are you okay, hun? That looked intense." She said.

"I don't know what just happened." I said, brushing my hair out of my face. I felt so flustered. Why did I feel like this? Why didn't I just slap his hand away and storm off?

"Looked like a lover's quarrel to me." Helen said with a grin.

"No, I... I went in there to yell at him and I did and it felt great. You know, I felt so confident and proud but then just one touch and-" I said in a rush.

"And your heart raced? Your knees went week?" Helen asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"Show me your hands." Helen said.

"What?" I asked.

"Come on, show me your hands." She said again, grabbing one of my hands with hers. "Just as I thought." She said.

"What?"

"They're clammy. You like that boy." Helen winked. I snatched my hand away in protest.

"What? I do not!" I said, well, more like yelled.

"Come on, even I could see the passion between the two of you. The way he chased you out in to the front yard; The way he grabbed your wrist; Oh and the way you ran away. It was like watching a Teen Movie." Helen said with a slight smile.

"It's not passion, it's drama." I said. "And I don't need any more drama in my life." I sunk in to the car seat and folded my arms.

"What ever you say, hun." Helen shrugged.

You know that saying? You wait a whole hour for a bus and then two come along at once. I think it' something like that. Anyway, this is exactly like that. I'd spent years admiring the couples at school, hoping one day I'd have a boyfriend of my own. And, now, two boys were in to me and were pretty much fighting over me. But it wasn't romantic or empowering, it was confusing and frustrating. I mean, is it really possible to like two people? I'd never thought so, but now I was starting to wonder.

Helen took me to one of the fanciest restaurants in town. It was nice but I felt pretty out of place being there in my school uniform. She told me all about her trip and about the amazing people she met. In the end, I decided not to tell her about everything that had been going on in my life. The timing just didn't seem right. Once we got home Helen cracked open a bottle of wine and retreated to her bedroom to finish up some paper work. Where as I flopped down on the sofa, got out my phone and dialled Gray's number.

"Hey." He said as he answered the phone.

"Are you busy?" I asked. "I'd really like to see you."

"I can be there in twenty minutes." Gray said.

"Okay, I'll see you in twenty." I smiled to myself and hung up the phone. I've always wanted to do that, you know. Call up a guy, ask to see him and he immediately runs to my front door. And sure enough, he was at my door twenty minutes later. He sat in the corner of the sofa and I sat myself in-between his legs. It was one of my favourite ways to sit. He held my waist tight and rested his chin on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry about earlier today." He said.

"It's okay. I get it." I said, wondering whether to tell him I'd spoken to Natsu.

"You do?" He asked.

"Yeah. Guy friendships are hard. Especially when those guys like the same girl." I said.

"So, you know he likes you then." Gray said with a sigh.

"Yes. But it doesn't matter because I like you." I turned my head and smiled but Gray wasn't smiling back.

"I just don't want to hurt him." Gray said.

"I know. Neither do I. But I also don't want us avoiding eachother. Or even avoiding Natsu for that matter." I said.

"You're right. I just want us to be together without the drama." Gray said.

"I agree. So from this point on, no more drama." I said.

"No more drama." Gray smiled and leant his forehead against mine. He left a few hours later.

* * *

The next morning, at school, all second and third year students were called to the assembly hall for an announcement. As the crowds of students bustled through the doors, I saw Mira and Lisanna waving me over. So I hurried towards them and took my seat next to them.

"Do you guys know what this is all about?" I asked as other students began to take their seats.

"Duh, it's the school's annual Ski Trip." Lisanna said.

"Wow, is it really time for that again?" I asked. Last year we were only first year students so we couldn't go on the trip. But for most students the ski trip is the highlight of their entire high school career.

"It's finally our turn!" Mira squealed. "I have been preparing for this trip since the beginning of the school year."

"You have?" I asked. I had completely forgotten about the whole thing myself.

"Yes. I've been taking Ski lessons at the Leisure Centre and collecting all the best gear." Mira said excitedly.

"Doesn't learning to Ski before going on the trip kinda' defeat the object of going on the trip?" I asked.

"No. Because whilst everyone else is falling on their asses, I'll be whizzing down the mountain like a pro." Mira grinned. She actually had a point. I'd never touched a Ski in my life. If anyone was going to fall on their ass it would probably be me. The head master, Macao Conbolt, took to the stage then to hush us all. He was a nice man and I think he had a son at the school.

"Now, I'm sure most of you have figured out why we have gathered you here." He began. "Monday next week, if your parents have given permission, we will be whisking you away to the mountains for this years annual ski trip!" He announced and the whole hall erupted in to cheers and squeals of excitement. Mira grabbed my arm and began throttling it in the air as she screamed, not being able to contain herself. I laughed but it kinda' hurt. I didn't really know what all the fuss was about to be honest.

"The trip will cost One Hundred Pounds." Miss Evergreen added.

"Yes and there are limited spaces so get your cheques in quick. First come first served. Your tutors will hand you an official letter when you return to your classrooms." Mr Conbolt finished up the assembly and we all began rushing outside. You could hear everyone discussing who they'd be sharing a room with, who their bus buddy would be and what boy or girl they wanted to cosy up with by the fire. Okay, so even I was excited. I'd never been on a school trip before. Plus, the thought of spending a romantic evening by the fire with Gray was more than inviting.

That day at lunch Mira, Lisanna, Juvia and I headed to the canteen together. All they could talk about was how excited they were for the trip. The four us had decided we would share a cabin together which I was fine with, but I was worried about Levy.

"What about Levy?" I asked.

"What about her?" Mira said.

"Who's she going to bunk with?"

"Well, we just thought since the two of you aren't speaking you wouldn't want to share a cabin with her." Lisanna said.

"I guess." I awkwardly shifted around in my seat. To be honest I was shocked they had chosen me over her. I didn't want her to think we were leaving her out of the group. But then again, she had been pretty horrible to me and this time she was the only one who needed to apologise. So, I just tried to focuse on getting excited for the trip with the other girls.

"This will be the perfect opportunity for Natsu to officially ask me to be his girlfriend." Lisanna said romantically. I felt my stomach knot a little. She had no idea how he really felt.

"And the perfect opportunity for Lyon to ask out Juvia." I gave Juvia a nudge in the arm but all I was really trying to do was change the subject from Lisanna and Natsu.

"I told you, I don't like him like that." Juvia said with a blush.

"You might change your mind when you're on a snowy cliff top, cuddling close together for body heat." Lisanna grinned.

"There won't be any cliff top cuddles going on!" Juvia cried. The four of us laughed before heading back to class.

Gray met me from my class room and the two of us headed out the school gates. He grabbed my hand and held it tight as we began the walk home.

"Do you want to come round for dinner tonight? Helen wants to get to know you better." I smiled as I swung our hands back and forth while we wondered down the path.

"Sure. Maybe at some point you could meet my family." Gray said. He seemed a little nervous, which was very cute.

"I'd love to." I beamed. I couldn't wait to go to his house and meet his family. "By the way, are you going on the ski trip?" I asked.

"Are you?" He asked in return.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Then I wouldn't miss it." Gray grinned before stopping to give me a quick kiss. I must admit, it was much easier being boyfriend and girlfriend outside of school. There was no one to stare at us or judge us. We could just enjoy being a couple. Until we got back to my house that is. We walked up my driveway to find a pair of broken, mangled ski's laying along my porch steps. I let go of Gray's hand and ran over to inspect them. Sure enough, there was a note tied around one of the ski handles.

"What does this one say?" Gray asked with a sigh.

" _See you on the mountains, Lulu. AnonyBitch."_ I read.

"This is getting ridiculous now." Gray said with a roll of his eyes.

"What's her game? What does she want?" I asked. I just couldn't figure it out. Who was doing this and why?

"Who ever it is, they're just trying to scare you." Gray said as he picked up the skis and threw them in the trash.

"Well, I'm not scared. I'm angry and I am going on that ski trip whether this Anonybitch is there or not." I said.

"Glad to hear it." Gray grinned.

 _x :) x_

* * *

 **AN:**

 **So, this was a pretty short and boring chapter but I just needed it to move us on to the next one which is going to be the ski trip! :D Guys I am so excited for the ski trip chapter! It is going to be so drama filled and action packed I just can't wait to get it up! I hope everyone is well and I will speak to you in my next chapter :)**


	16. Coach Trip

**Chapter Sixteen:**

Monday Morning

Helen had taken me away for the weekend to go shopping for new gear for the school's ski trip. It was a little unnecessary, but it was nice to get away for a couple of days. Away from Natsu; Away from Levy; Away from Anonybitch and her threats. When we got back Sunday night I was expecting to find something from Anonybitch on my porch again, but she had luckily left me alone. Helen helped me pack my suitcase Monday morning and the two of us waited for Gray on our porch steps. Him and I were going to walk to school together.

"I'm so excited for you!" Helen beamed as she clung to her morning cup of coffee. It was only six AM. We had to be up early to catch the bus to the ski resort.

"I'm kind of nervous." I said.

"What? Why, hun?" She asked.

"I don't know. I've never been on a trip like this before." I said and it was true. I had no idea what to expect from this trip, especially with Anonybitch saying she'd "See me there."

"Don't over think it, okay? Just go with the flow and you'll have a great time." Helen said, zipping up my hoody.

"Thanks, Aunt Helen." I smiled.

"No worries, hun." She said as she affectionately tapped me on the nose. Gray sauntered in to the driveway then. He didn't have a suitcase, just an oversized bag hanging from his shoulder.

"Is that all you've packed?" I asked.

"Yep. I travel light." He said as he approached Helen and I. He was wearing a padded, dark blue coat and black job bottoms.

"Yeah, but it's four days." I said as I stared down at my suitcase, wondering if I had packed too much.

"Hey, no over thinking." Helen reminded me.

"Right." I nodded.

"We should get going." Gray said.

"Okay." I said. Gray carried my suitcase down the porch steps for me as I said goodbye to Helen.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you?" She asked.

"We're sure." I smile.

"Okay. Have fun!" Helen waved as Gray and I disappeared down the street.

"How was your weekend?" Gray asked.

"It was good. Helen spent bought me a ton ski clothes, hence the giant case." I said. "How about you?"

"It was okay." He sighed.

"Only okay?" I asked.

"Well, Juvia spent the whole weekend at our house." Gray said.

"She did? Why?" I asked.

"Her and Lyon are dating now I guess."

"They are?" I gasped.

"Yep and she spends as much time with him as possible." Gray said.

"That's so weird. On Friday she seemed completely uninterested." I said.

"That's the power of the ski trip." Gray grinned.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Don't you know? Every girl likes to have a boyfriend for the ski trip." Gray explained.

"They do? Why?" I asked, completely unaware of the fact.

"Because it's super romantic." He said. "It's nice to spend it with a boyfriend or girlfriend."

"Is that why you asked me out?" I smirked, nudging him in the arm.

"Duh." He winked but I knew he was joking so I shoved him a little.

It was around six thirty AM when we got to school and the sun was just re entering the sky. Being at school this early was so strange. There were three coaches waiting to whisk us all away and the teachers were trying to get the crowds of students in to some sort of order. Loke took Gray away from me as soon as we got through the school gates.

"I'll text you!" Gray said as Loke pulled him off to wait with the other guys. Luckily I spotted Mira and Lisanna pretty quickly. They looked amazing. Mira was wearing baby pink from head to toe. Her boots were trimmed with white fur and so was her hat and gloves- it wasn't even that cold. Lisanna was dressed in light blue from head to toe except her clothes were trimmed with little white bobbles. I felt so under dressed in my jog bottoms, UGG boots and hoody. Admittedly Helen had bought me much nicer clothes, but I just wanted to dress comfy for the coach trip.

"You guys look great." I said as I made my way over to them.

"Thanks, Lulu." Mira smiled.

"Are you ready for this, Lucy?" Lisanna asked me with a giant grin.

"Ready for the trip? Sure." I smiled.

"No, Lucy. Ready for adventure." Lisanna said, gazing off in to the distance.

"You're so weird." Mira said, giving her sister a judgey look. I laughed. "Oh, look. There's Juvia." Mira said, pointing to Juvia who was just walking through the school gates.

"With Lyon again." I said as we spotted him beside Juvia.

"Again?" Mira asked.

"Yeah, apparently she spent the whole weekend with him." I said.

"Really?" Mira asked with a cheeky grin. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Lyon went to wait with Gray and the other guys, but Juvia went with him. She gave us a wave at least as the two of them walked past us. After a little while longer, I spotted Levy. Gajeel had walked her to school, even though he wasn't going on the trip. He even waited with her until it was time to get on the coaches. I desperately wanted to go check in with her, but she was the one in the wrong. This time I wasn't going to be the bigger person. It was up to her to break the silence. I checked my phone to see if Gray had text me. He had.

 ** _Text Message From Gray :_**

 _Sorry about Loke dragging me away x_

 ** _Text Message To Gray :_**

 _It's okay. We'll have plenty of time together this week :) x_

I waited a few minutes for his response, since I couldn't see him in the crowd of other students anymore. Then my phone buzzed.

 _ **Text Message From Gray :**_

 _Can't wait x_

 ** _Text Message From Gray :_**

 _Uh Oh. Looks like Evergreen has something to say x_

I looked up from his texts and saw Miss Evergreen waving her arms at the school gates, but no one else was paying attention to her. In the end a P.E teacher offered her their whistle. She blew it hard and it soon got everyone's attention.

"Okay, everyone! I need you all to get in to three groups. I will be calling out your names and which group you're in. This is going to take forever so try to make this easier for me by keeping quiet." Miss Evergreen yelled. We all began to move in to our groups. Not only were these the groups we'd be travelling with, but each group would be staying in certain parts of the resort. I guess it was for safety reasons and to make the teachers jobs easier. Levy and Erza, who were sharing a room, ended up in the same group as Mira, Lisana, Juvia and I. The boys, Gray, Natsu, Lyon and Loke also ended up in our group. Yep, we were all in group three. Each group had to line up along side their assigned coach.

 ** _Text Message To Gray :_**

 _Group 3 FTW x_

 ** _Text Message From Gray :_**

 _Go Group 3! x_

I smiled to myself before tucking my phone back in to my pocket.

"You're sitting next to me, right?" Mira asked Lisanna.

"Yeah." Lisanna said.

"Who am I meant to sit next to?" I asked.

"Juvia." Mira said.

"She's sitting with Lyon by the looks of it." I said, peering down the line. Juvia was clinging on to Lyon's arm, laughing away at everything he said. You could tell he was loving her attention.

"Maybe we can grab the seats at the back and all sit together." Lisanna suggested.

"Yeah, like that's gonna' happen. I can already hear the guys conspiring to fight their way to the back of the bus." Mira scoffed.

"Sounds about right." I sighed.

"Don't worry, Lucy. You brought headphones right?" Lisanna asked.

"Yeah."

"She doesn't need headphones. Just sit in the seats next to us and we'll talk to you." Mira said.

"Okay. I just hope the seat next to me stays empty." I said. Miss Evergreen sauntered over then and took her place at the front of our line.

"Right, Group Three, I will be your assigned professor for the next four days." She yelled.

"Great, we're stuck with the nut case." Mira whispered.

"Now, it's time to hop aboard. When you pass me to enter the bus, please say your name so I can tick you off the register." Miss Evergreen said. I looked around and watched as the other two groups began to filter on to their buses. We all had to leave our suitcases along the side of the bus, where the drivers would load them for us. I felt sorry for the guy having to lift Mira's giant suit case- You'd think she was going for a month or two. Then again, mine wasn't much better.

It was soon time for the three of us to board the coach. But everyone had sat so randomly, there weren't any two sets of seats free next to eachother. We lingered in the isle trying to think of an answer.

"Come on, girls. You're holding up the queue." Miss Evergreen called in to the bus.

"Oh, god." I sighed.

"Sorry, Lulu." Mira said as her and Lisanna took their seats near the front.

"It's fine. I'll just see you guys when we get there." I said as I continued to make my way down the isle. I ended up sitting halfway down the coach all on my lonesome. Gray walked past with his friends eventually.

"Are you sitting alone?" He asked me.

"Yeah, but it's fine. I have my headphones." I said, waving my headphones in the air.

"I'll sit with you." He said.

"No, it's okay. Go sit with your friends, have fun." I smiled.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"I'm sure. I'll see you when we get there." I said. So, Gray and the other guys took their seats at the back. I didn't want to drag him away from his friends. Everyone knows one of the best parts of a school trip is the coach journey there.

All the seats around me began to fill. Juvia, like I predicted, sat with Lyon and I think Levy and Erza were right at the front. After a while, I began to feel a little left out. Everyone was chatting away and laughing with the person sat next to them and I didn't have that. Until Natsu showed up, that is. He appeared at my side and began shoving his rucksack on the luggage shelf above our seats. As he stretched upwards his jumper rose a little and I could see the waistband of his underwear. I turned away quickly, feeling myself blush. Without a word he sat himself next to me and began buckling his seatbelt.

"What are you doing, Natsu?" I asked.

"My seatbelt. You should do your's up too." He said.

"You know what I mean." I said. He grinned at me.

"I'm sitting next to you. You don't want to sit alone for four hours." He said. Four hours? Is that how long this journey was? I thought it was going to take half that amount of time. Maybe having someone to sit next to would be nice. I felt guilty though. If I was going to sit with a guy, it should be Gray.

"I don't know. Gray asked to sit next to me and I said no, if he sees me sat with you-"

"-Relax, Lucy." Natsu interrupted me. "This is completely innocent. We're just two friends keeping eachother company on a long journey." He smiled.

"Okay, fine." I sighed.

"I'm planning on sleeping for at least the first hour, anyway." He said.

"Well, no resting your head on my shoulder." I said.

"I can't help it if I'm asleep." Natsu teased.

"Natsu."

"Okay, okay. I'll stick to my side." He grinned.

Miss Evergreen climbed aboard then. Everyone had been seated and was busy discussing the trip, so Miss Evergreen had to borrow the driver's microphone to get us all to listen. She basically just went over the rules for the week.

Rule 1. Every one must be back in their assigned cabin by Ten PM.

Rule 2. Every one must stick to the trails- No going where we can't be seen by others.

Rule 3. No leaving the Resort unsupervised under any circumstances.

Rule 4. No spending time alone with Natsu.

Okay, that last one was just for me.

Natsu did as he said he would and fell asleep almost immediately. I grabbed my phone and plugged my headphones in before receiving a text from Gray.

 ** _Text Message From Gray :_**

 _Are you sat with Natsu? x_

Uh oh. Was he annoyed that I was sat with Natsu?

 _ **Text Message To Gray :**_

 _Yeah, sorry. He insisted x_

I waited for his reply but I didn't get one. How could he be annoyed? I didn't ask Natsu to sit with me. I just put my headphones in and tried not to over think anything. After an hour or so Natsu began to stir. I watched him out the corner of my eye, trying not to get caught looking at him, as he finally woke up. He stretched and ran his hands through his hair. I could feel his eyes on me, but I kept my headphones in and remained staring out the window.

"That's rude." Natsu said as he pulled my headphones out of my phone.

"Hey." I said, removing the ear pieces.

"Talk to me." He said. I rolled my eyes and leant my head against the scratchy coach seat.

"This reminds me of when we went to the aquarium." I said- And it really did.

"Oh yeah. That was a good day." Natsu smiled.

"It was." I smiled too. Then we both went quiet, probably thinking the same thing.

"Um, so, want a snack?" Natsu asked.

"We're not allowed to eat on the coach." I said.

"Come on, they can't expect us to go all morning with out eating." Natsu said.

"You should of eaten before you got on the coach." I said.

"I did." Natsu grinned. I laughed a little as he Natsu reached under his seat and pulled his backpack on to his lap.

"What have you got in here?" I asked as I poked Natsu's bag, it looked like it was bursting at the seams.

"Mainly food. But I've also got some survival supplies." He said.

"Supplies?" I asked.

"Yeah, you know, a torch a pocket knife. Oh and a compass." Natsu grinned.

"Ha-Ha." I said sarcastically. But the fact that he had remembered me and my supplies from the camp out made me smile.

"Here." Natsu handed me a cereal bar.

"Thanks." I said.

"I want things to go back to how they were before. You know, when there was no weirdness between us." Natsu said, blushing a little.

"Me too." I said. Natsu and I had been close. Maybe at one point I thought my feelings for Natsu were romantic ones, but now I just wanted to be good friends with him again.

"Okay. So, we're cool?" Natsu asked.

"We're cool." I smiled.

I ended up really enjoying sitting next to Natsu. He told me stories and taught me games you can play with just a pen and a note pad. We shared my headphones and I played him my music. It was going great but then Gray showed up. Natsu and I were laughing about a joke Natsu had made when Gray suddenly appeared in the isle next to us.

"Gray, you're not meant to be out of your seat." I said, taking my headphones back from Natsu.

"I was hoping Natsu and I could switch seats." Gray said.

"Oh." I replied. This was awkward. I didn't want to ask Natsu to leave but I couldn't turn Gray away either. I decided to let them work it out between themselves.

"Sure, I'll just head to the back." Natsu said, grabbing his backpack and unbuckling his seat belt.

"Thanks, man." Gray said. I couldn't tell if there was tension between the two of them or not.

"I'll see ya' later, Lucy." Natsu hopped out of his seat and headed to the back of the coach.

"Hey." Gray smiled as he took his seat next to me.

"Hey." I smiled back but I felt bad for Natsu.

"Sorry, I just felt bad for leaving you to sit alone earlier." Gray said.

"It's okay." I said.

The rest of the journey was fun too. I taught Gray the games Natsu had taught me, of course I left out the Natsu part. I understand why Gray wanted to switch seats, I probably wouldn't have been happy if I knew he was sat with another girl.

Sitting with Gray made the rest of the journey fly by and before we knew it we were pulling in to the snowy cliff top resort.

"Wow." I gasped as I stared at the amazing site through the window. The place looked incredible and it was much bigger than I was expecting. All three coaches parked up outside of the main lobby and reception building. Every building was made from beautiful wooden logs that really added character to the place and made the whole experience feel a lot more authentic.

"Right." Miss Evergreen stood at the front of the coach. "If everyone could slowly make their way out of the coach and we'll get all checked in!" She cheered.

"You ready?" Gray asked.

"Definitely." I took his hand and we began shuffling down the isle.

"You nervous?" He asked.

"A little." I admitted. Anonybitch may have just been trying to spook me when she left those skis outside my house, or she really did have something planned for me here.

"I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you, okay?" Gray smiled and squeezed my hand a little tighter. I felt protected when I was around him and confident. When he told me something, I believed it.

"Okay." I smiled as we exited the coach and entered the brisk outdoors. It was a lot colder than I had expected. I should have worn my fancy mountain gear after all.

"Here." Gray chuckled as I shivered away. He stood behind me and zipped up in his coat around me, so we were both now wearing his coat. He had his arms through the sleeves but mine were trapped beneath the padded fabric. I liked it though, it was warm. "Cosy?" Gray asked, wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on my head.

"Very." I smiled.

"Look at you two." Mira grinned as she approached Gray and I.

"This genius didn't wear a coat." Gray said.

"Why would she wear her's when you can both wear yours'?" Mira winked.

We waited a few minutes while the other coaches unloaded, but we were soon told we were aloud to head inside.

"Gray it's too awkward walking like this." I said.

"You're right." Gray said. I waited for him to unzip me but he didn't. Instead, he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the ground.

"Gray!" I laughed. "What are you doing?" With my arms secured under his coat there was nothing I could do to fight it.

"Carrying you inside." He said. People were watching us, judging us probably. But I didn't care. I was having fun and that's what this trip was all about. We had only just arrived, but I already felt like this trip would be unforgettable.

x ;) x

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Finally, a new chapter! I want to thank you all so much for being patient with me. I noticed I lost a few followers because of this, but I love and appreciate everyone who stayed. This chapter was just a stepping stone for all the drama that lays ahead for Lucy and the guys! I'm once again excited about this story and I feel like I've gotten my groove back so be expecting frequent updates from me from now on :) I hope you're all doing good and, as always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D**


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